


just a kiss

by bookishgypsy, falliamridley, falloncridley (myyellowumbrella47)



Category: Dynasty (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:01:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 44,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24308614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookishgypsy/pseuds/bookishgypsy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/falliamridley/pseuds/falliamridley, https://archiveofourown.org/users/myyellowumbrella47/pseuds/falloncridley
Summary: Collection of one-shots and drabbles of different types of kisses between our two favorites, Fallon & Liam.
Relationships: Fallon Carrington/Liam Ridley
Comments: 254
Kudos: 279





	1. kiss at dusk

**Author's Note:**

> So, [Bruna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/myyellowumbrella47/pseuds/falloncridley) and I decided to take a bunch of kissing prompts and turn it into a challenge! We've created a master list of all these over on tumblr, which you can find [here!](https://ladysantebellum.tumblr.com/masterkiss) Our goal is to post one a week and switch off between the two of us. We hope you enjoy these, and hopefully it's another fun hiatus project to get us through the hell year without Dynasty.

Her feet sink into the still warm sand, even with the sun beginning to set against the Earth’s horizon. It looks like a professional painting, the scene that’s laid out in front of them; there’s blues, oranges, red, pinks and yellow all blurring together above the turquoise shore, romantic and welcoming all the same. The bright yellow star peaks in and out between fluffy cumulus clouds, puffy little pillows floating in the sky, they almost look purple with all the colors blending together around them. 

She lets her toes sink into the sand a little further, the cooler sand beneath the surface an attribute to the falling temperatures from earlier in the day. The clouds cover the blazing hot object in the sky, letting the warm ocean breeze fall across her face like a whisper, before that sun is peeping back out again and beating its warm rays against her face. She feels his eyes on her, she’s felt them drilling into her since the moment they came down to the beach and settled on the soft blanket. Distracted as always, Liam was. 

“You’re not watching the sunset,” she hums into the night air. 

There’s soft chatters from other beach-goers, some still bathing in the warm ocean and others just walking breezily along where the ocean meets the shore. The gentle sound of waves crashing gently against the shore is the perfect soundtrack accompanying the moment, only adding more warmth and more romance into the air. She tilts her head into his palm when it comes up to wisp a strand of sun-kissed, salty ocean hair out of her face, tucking it gently behind her earlobe. 

“I think I like my view better.”

“Stop,” she whines, although it’s hardly in a threatening or annoyed tone. Not that she’d ever tell anyone, but she rather likes it. “Don’t be cheesy.”

“You love it,” his low voice mutters, his thumb briskly moving across her soft cheek. 

“You’re the one who dragged me down here to watch this,” she argues back, watching him as his eyes gaze back to all the colors in the sky bleeding together as the sun falls deeper against the horizon.

“And it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It’s stunning,” she breathes out as she looks back at the scene in front of them. The sun dips just below the horizon then, the orange-yellow glow radiating against the night sky that only seems to become darker with each passing second.

“ _You’re_ beautiful.”

She only roll her eyes, it’s all she _can_ do as she lets her head tilt around in his direction to find his warm and inviting eyes staring right back at her again. There’s this blueish green shade in his orbs that she’s never been able to pinpoint the exact color of in any particular moment; sometimes they leaned towards a tint of blue and somedays they wavered towards a green hue. She could never get enough of the love that pooled inside his eyes whenever he looked at her, how she suddenly would feel that there’s not another single soul in the world besides the two of them in the exact moment their eyes would melt together. 

His hand comes up to grip at her chin with his index finger and his thumb, holding her face in his grasp with the most gentle of touches. He pulls her forward, his eyes closing before she lets her own flutter shut as their lips meet in the middle. It’s simple, chaste, but not lacking from any of the passion and love they both felt for each other; there’s a warmth and feeling of content that fill her bones, a shiver shooting down her spine as he pushes more pressure against her mouth. Their lips glide easily against each other, the familiar feelings easy and second nature to attain at this point in their relationship. She captures his bottom lip in between her own, before she pulls away and lets their mouths separate with a satisfying _pop_. Her forehead rests easily against his, his hand weaving in through the stands of her brunette locks.

“I love you.”

She feels him smile, feels how his lips curve upwards and that tug of his skin against hers. She tucks her head against him, in between his shoulder and the crevice of his neck, just as he wraps his arm around her from behind and pull her as close to his body as he can. The darkness around them moves in quickly, night stars twinkling against the navy skyline; there’s still a hint of yellow settling behind the horizon, reflecting off the almost transparent water. 

“I love you, too.”


	2. forehead kiss

It was almost ten o’clock and the mansion was dark and quiet, as if no one even lived there. The staff had left hours back and the only sound Fallon could hear as she walked up the stairs was the wind blowing against the wide windows of their hallway.

Fallon had already showered and changed into her dark blue silk pajamas, her hair falling down her shoulders in natural waves and her face free of any kind of make up. As winter approached, the nights were getting cooler and while she wore long sleeves and pants, she couldn’t wait to get to her bedroom, where the fire had been crackling in the fireplace for hours.

The master bedroom was only a short walk from the top of the stairs and since she had left the door slightly open when she left, all Fallon had to do was push it open with her back as she carried the wooden tray. The blackout curtains were closed and the lights were all off inside the room but the fire offered the perfect cozy and inviting orange illumination.

As Fallon stepped further into the room, she placed the tray carefully on Liam’s nightstand before sitting down on the edge of the bed. For a couple of minutes, all she could do was stare at his pale face as he slept soundly. He wasn’t supposed to have three layers of blankets over him after spending the afternoon battling against a fever that insisted on returning every couple of hours. However, he looked so adorable wrapped around the warm fluffy blanket on top that she couldn’t help but smile at the sight in front of her.

Leaning forward, she gently rested her cheek against his forehead to check for any signs of a fever but his temperature seemed to be finally going back to normal.

“Babe...” Fallon spoke softly, running a hand through his hair. “Wake up,”

“I’m tired,” he mumbled. His voice was barely audible when he turned away from her, lying on his side with his back to her.

“You’ve been asleep for almost four hours now,” she told him. “You need to eat,”

“No, sleep,” he murmured.

“Come on, Liam, you’re not a child,” Fallon rolled his eyes. “I brought you soup and some bread, babe,”

“Did you _cook_?” Liam turned around with a frown, finally opening his eyes as the idea of Fallon actually doing something in the kitchen caught him by surprise.

“Of course not, silly,” Fallon chuckled. “Carol made your favorite soup but you had just fallen asleep...” she told him. “It’s almost ten and I don’t want you to sleep through the night without food in your stomach,”

“Alright, alright,” Liam groaned, sitting up. “This soup does smell great anyway,” he glanced at the tray Fallon had set up as he leaned against the headboard.

“How are you feeling?” She asked while settling the tray over his legs.

“Slightly better,” Liam offered her a smile before taking the spoonful of soup to his mouth. “Well rested I suppose,” he added, “but I think I would be even better if someone were to give me this soup,”

“I’m not feeding you, if that’s what you’re implying,” Fallon countered. “I brought you the soup all the way from the kitchen but you’re perfectly capable of moving that spoon between the bowl and your mouth on your own,”

“Come on, babe,” Liam pouted. “I’m sick...”

“Why do men always turn into babies when they get sick?” Fallon crossed her arms against her chest. “Do you want a bib and a funny spoon too?”

“I will keep that in mind for the next time you get sick,” Liam teased her.

“Oh, for god’s sake,” Fallon sighed, a groan escaping her lips as she scooted closer to him. “Pull the tray towards you,” she instructed while reaching for the spoon between his fingers. “How is that, Mr. Ridley?” She asked as she lifted the spoon to his mouth.

“It tastes even better now,” he smiled.

“Should I make airplane noises too?” Fallon questioned. “Voom, voom!” She moved the spoon in the air for a couple of seconds, always keeping her other hand beneath it in case some of the soup fell from the bottom, then gently pushed it inside his open mouth. "No, that's too much, I can't do that, no," she mumbled, shaking her head.

“I think the fever might be coming back because Fallon Carrington making airplane noises with a spoon of soup has got to be a hallucination,” Liam raised one hand, placing his palm flat open against his forehead.

“You’re _so_ funny, Liam,” Fallon replied sarcastically. “Can you see me laughing so hard right now?” She threw him a glare.

“You were a lot nicer earlier,” he shrugged while eating a piece of the bread.

“You texted me you were feeling weird and that you had a 103 degrees fever in the middle of the day, Liam!” Fallon exclaimed. “I left the office in a hurry and yeah, I was freaking out because you’re the one that knows what to do in this situation but now I see that you just wanted me to spoil you,” she teased as she fed him more soup.

“I think you’re doing just fine, babe,” Liam reached for her face, running his thumb delicately over her cheek before pushing a lock of hair behind her ear as she leaned against his hand.

“Do you want me to run you a bubble bath?” Fallon suggested.

“Will you join me?”

“I’ve already showered,” Fallon told him, “but I admit a bubble bath sounds quite nice and relaxing...” she smiled. “Can you finish your soup while I turn on the water?”

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“Eat everything, Liam,” she stood up, taking one hand up to his hair. “Including the bread,”

“I will, boss,”

“I love you, babe,” Fallon’s tone was soft as she leaned forward, placing a long kiss on his forehead as her fingers played with his short strands. Her lips were slightly cold against his relatively warm skin but a smile quickly appeared on his lips as he looked up at his wife, appreciating the sweet gesture she had definitely picked up from him at some point during their relationship.

“I love you too, Fal,”


	3. under a full moon

She isn’t surprised when he tells her they’re going to watch the lunar eclipse that night.

No, her boyfriend had always been a little bit on the nerdy side, and despite her teasing him about his little quirks on a daily basis, she rather quite liked the way his face would light up when he got excited about something. The way his eyebrows would furrow together when he was concentrated on learning something new, or reading a book on a subject that fascinated him. Or even when he was trying to explain something to her, the way his eyes would light up with excitement over some of the simplest of things - she adored it all just the same.

He tugs her outside into the warm August heat, humidity sticking to her skin the minute they step into the fresh air. They walk hand-in-hand on the path that surrounds the lake, before he settles on a patch of grass for them to lay on. Liam lays out the tan blanket, beckoning her to come join him and settle beside him with a grin and a wink. She does, easily, watching on as he pulls out a bottle of champagne and two accompanying glasses from the small bag he packed.

“It’s not too late to go back inside into the air conditioned house,” she says, the carbonation in the glass bottle popping when Liam lets the cork fly free. “We could just curl up in my bed in my much more comfortable room,” she continues, accepting the sparkling beverage from his waiting hands nonetheless, letting her first sip of bubbles glide smoothly down her throat. “I might even let you get lucky.”

“You’ll still gonna let me get lucky afterwards, anyways,” Liam counters. And, okay, yeah, maybe he wasn’t totally wrong there, but she can’t blame herself for trying to get out of the sticky outdoors a little bit sooner than he was so obviously intending. “We’re still watching this eclipse, though.”

“Of course we are,” she mutters.

Fallon lets herself fall back against the soft fabric resting on the hard ground, her skin brushing against his when she pushes herself closer to him; it gives her the slightest tingle, just like it always did when they were this close, a feathering sensation crawling up her skin at the touch. She lets her head rest atop his shoulder, their hands falling together in the center of them, fingers tangled together in the darkness; an easy and familiar movement for the both of them.

The stars sparkle above her; something she never really took the time to notice before. Single little flecks of light that randomly appear above her, beaming and glowing with their own special scintillae. Each orb of light is a different size with its own special glow, some a mere fleck in the light years away it lays. The moon is full and bright, the biggest and brightest object in the sky of all of them, and it encapsulates them both in small ring of light that shines around both their bodies. The giant orb that hangs above them reflects off the lake, a shimmery glaze appearing against the ripples on the surface.

It looked stunning, she thinks, the way everything sort of just shines in the pitch dark night. It’s incredible, really, how endless everything really seemed; that there was a world of possibilities out there that had barely been explored, just eons of endless space. She can’t believe she’s never really taken the time to look up at the night sky like this before, never really taken the time to appreciate the beauty of it all.

The charm in all its simplicity.

“I never really noticed how beautiful and peaceful the night sky looked before,” she says, nuzzling closer to the warmth of his body, despite the sticky heat that clings to their bare skin.

“You’ve never star-gazed like this before?”

“No. I don’t know, it’s just,” she shrugs against his form, struggling to find the words without ruining the moment he’d tried to hard to perfect for her. “We didn’t really do things like a normal family would in the Carrington household. I know your family wasn’t exactly normal either,” she breezes on, a slight sadness to her tone. “Most nights my parents would just fight until they couldn’t scream anymore, and I’d hide away in my room, trying to drown out all the sounds.”

Liam’s thumb brushes against hers in their tangled hands. “Fal.”

“No, it’s okay. I got through it. I’m here now,” she says, leaning up to find the outline of his face amongst the darkness. His lips press against the top of her head, a reassurance that he’s right there with her, he’s not going anywhere. “With you.”

“My sister and I used to love to escape the bright lights of the city and drive out to a beach on Long Island,” he begins easily. “After my dad died….sometimes it just got too hard to stick around with my mom. So, we’d drive out to the beach and listen to the waves crash against the shore, and we’d just look up at the sky and wish our lives were as peaceful and as bright as the stars were.”

“You don’t talk about Lucy a lot.”

She feels him shrug against her. “I don’t know. We just sort of lost touch over the years. It’s not like we’re on bad terms or anything. We text here and there,” he mutters quietly, his voice strong against the sounds of nature surrounding them. “Life just…got in the way.”

“You should reach out to her sometime,” she suggests. “Invite her to Atlanta. I’d love to meet a member of your family that maybe doesn’t downright hate me.”

“Maybe,” he says in a pondering tone. She can hear the wheels turning in his head, the questioning of the situation in inviting his sister back into his life and opening that door again; she wasn’t going to push the conversation tonight, it wasn’t what he needed right now. “It’s just one of the many things my mother ruined for me,” he huffs out humorlessly. And she hates it, the way Laura Van Kirk had seriously ruined so many things for him, had done so much emotional damage to this poor man that she wasn’t sure it was completely fixable. “But it led me here to you, didn’t it?”

She squeezes at the hand that’s still tangled in her own. “I guess we both lucked out finding each other, huh?”

Fallon tilts her head up, still able to see his eyes with crystal clear clarity and finds him staring right back at her, his lips tilting upwards when her eyes meet his. She leans her body upwards, Liam’s face moving down to meet her in the middle as their lips gliding against each others in a gentle rhythm. It’s lazy and slow, but tender and pure all the same, a silent thank you to each other, a wordless way to tell each other I love you.

It’s almost like time seemingly stops for a moment as they move their mouths against each other, as if it’s only the two of them in this world for this one moment. And when they pull away from one another she finds her space against his shoulder once more, tucking herself into the tiny crevice of his neck to take comfort in the way he makes her feel completely safe and at ease; something she never thought she’d be able to find with another person.

He proved her wrong.

They relish in the silence, the stillness of the world that seems to only happen at these late hours. The crickets chirp loudly, soft splashes of water lingering in the lake from the life below the surface; small fishes jumping around, no doubt. There’s a soft breeze that rolls through, leaves crinkling from the trees above with a soft wisp against the air.

“So, when does this eclipse start?” She breaks the comfortable silence with a breathy whisper. “It just looks like a moon to me, still.”

“Oh, it takes about four hours,” he says breezily, as it’s the simplest thing he could offer her.

“Four hours?!”


	4. in your arms

“There you are,” Fallon poked her head through the partly open door to his office.

It was close to midnight and she had just gotten home after spending the past four hours at the manor with her father. Blake had invited her over for dinner to discuss some family related business matters and since Liam had a deadline coming up, she drove to the place she called home for almost three decades straight after work.

Although Liam wasn’t exactly interested in what Blake did or did not do with the Carrington name and money, Fallon had made it a habit to share with her husband everything her father talked to her about. It would become her dynasty at some point and eventually, they would have to handle their family’s business, whether they liked that idea or not.

“How was dinner?” Liam hit the small disk on the top right of the screen at the sight of his wife stepping into the room, saving the file he had been working on for hours before looking up from his laptop.

“Exhausting,” Fallon shrugged. “As if I didn’t have my own stuff to take care of, Blake wants me to be a part of his too,” she spoke while walking further into the room.

“Just be glad my mother doesn’t share that kind of stuff with us,” Liam chuckled, opening his arms out for her as she rounded the desk.

“I’m pretty sure I can handle Blake and his Carrington empire but there’s no way in hell I’m handling the Van Kirk’s craziness, I hope you know that,” she groaned.

“What are we going to do when they’re both inevitably ours in the next two or three decades?” He questioned. “I’m just a writer but I did marry one hell of a business woman, you know?” Reaching for her hand, he pulled her closer to him until she finally understood his hint. She had been awake for almost eighteen hours and she wasn’t even thinking straight anymore. “Would it be a wise business decision to leave a billion dollar worth company in the hands of a fictional writer?” He asked, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist once she was sitting on his lap.

“It’s a great thing you have a few decades to learn all about business and companies then,” Fallon offered him a smirk before throwing him a wink. “I don’t mean to sound horrible but Laura might drop dead the minute you tell her I would be the one handling the Van Kirk dynasty when you inherit it and we’re just going to have an even bigger problem in our hands,” she laughed.

“Pull your legs up,” Liam requested softly. “Maybe I _should_ tell her that...” He added, working on the thin red straps around her ankles to free her sore feet from those four inches Louboutin’s.

“Okay, now you lost me,” she frowned, throwing him a puzzled look.

“She might start treating you better once she realizes you could be the one to take over VKI when she’s gone,” Liam explained while he carefully removed the stilettos from her feet. “My sister would probably sell all of her shares just so she wouldn’t have to deal with this crazy family anymore so I wouldn’t exactly be surprised if my mother threw it all at me,” he admitted, dropping her heels on the floor before adjusting Fallon’s legs on his lap while she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“What about building our own dynasty?” Fallon leaned forward, resting her forehead against his as he tightened his grip around her. That chair wasn’t exactly big enough for the two of them but there was something about being completely wrapped up in his embrace that made Fallon feel as comfortable as she could be. “I believe that’s a lot more important than what we might inherit from our parents somewhere down the road,” she cupped his cheek softly, looking deeply into the blue eyes she was crazy in love with.

“It is,” Liam nodded while moving one arm in between their bodies. “And I thought we were already working on that?” He questioned, placing his hand on her fourteen weeks bump.

“We are, yeah,” Fallon whispered before pulling him in for a kiss.

As their lips moved in perfect sync with each other, Liam pulled her blouse out of her suit pants and slowly slid his hand underneath it. Fallon couldn’t help but break the kiss once she felt his cold hand against her skin but it didn’t take long for a smile to appear on her lips when he started to move it across her stomach. A smile they were both displaying when they crashed their lips back against each other’s, allowing their tongues to tangle while they shared delicate touches.

Her fingers were lost in his hair, playing with the light brown short strands while his hand continued to stroke her bump. Fallon couldn’t help but laugh when they broke the kiss for air and she noticed a few traces of her lipstick on his mouth but she knew Liam couldn’t care less about it. Taking a deep and relaxing breath, she chuckled softly before leaning in for another kiss. It was late, she was exhausted and she really wanted her bed. However, it didn’t really matter how tired she felt at that moment because all she wanted was to kiss her husband all night long, cradled against his chest while their lips moved together in a loving and passionate kiss.


	5. jealous

It’s not that she didn’t want to go to the launch party for Liam’s new book.

No, she very much wanted to go, to be there for him and support him through his next adventure, for his next piece of work. It’s just that she’s been to these parties before, and talking with a bunch of creatives that she had trouble relating to was incredibly difficult for her. She was a numbers person, an analytical person who saw things with reason; everyone at these parties was the complete opposite, seeing things vastly different than the reality she saw in front of her.

She always felt slightly out of place as people would come up to her husband and whisk him away, congratulating him on his next completed novel while barely acknowledging her in the process. Which was okay, these parties weren’t about her. It wasn’t about her or Fallon Unlimited or even whatever ridiculous drama was currently surrounding the Carrington name. it was about him and his accomplishments and she could deal with sharing some of the attention with her successful, author husband once in a while.

She just felt out of her realm with these folks, barely able to offer any type of stimulating conversation when she knew nothing about this world. So, she’d found it easier to always hang back and let him do his thing, let him wander and greet everyone he had to without clinging to his side like she’d typically do at a party.

She finds some comfort at the bar with his literary agent, Grace. Grace was a slightly older woman with silver hair, who much preferred to spend her days buried into a world that didn’t exist than making small talk with strangers at these sorts of gatherings. Liam’d been working with Grace since the very beginning of his career, so they’d acquainted themselves quite well over the years, always attending these sorts of gatherings for the very same reason - the New York Times Bestselling Author who just happened to also be her husband.

Which, speaking of, she hadn’t seen that husband of hers in quite a while now. It wasn’t totally abnormal for him to disappear, but he usually made a really strong effort to check in with her every half hour or so to make sure she was okay. It’d probably been closer to two hours since she’d seem him, while she stayed by the open bar drinking a few southsides and enjoying a few appetizers. She spins her body around on the barstool then, looking out into the moderate sized crowed to see if she can spot the dirty blonde, blue-eyed boy she’s looking for.

And she indeeds find him, being doted by some young twenty-something with platinum blonde hair, tanned skin and a dress leaving little to the imagination. She’s laughing at something her husband said, loud and completely enthralled with the conversation they’re having - she just can’t overhear whatever is they’re talking about from her distance. But she knows her husband better than anyone, and the look on his face says he’s anything but comfortable in the situation he’s got himself in.

“Hey, Grace,” she mutters without taking her eyes off the pair. “Who’s that over there with Liam?”

The older, gentle lady spins around on her own barstool, finding the two targets amongst the crowd. “Oh, that’s Rachel. One of the new interns at Harper.”

“New intern, huh?”

And before Grace even has a chance to respond, the bleach blonde erupts in laughter once more, followed my her hand coming up to rest upon her husbands shoulder, and settling there as if she was trying to stake her claim.

And Fallon Carrington was having none of that.

She hops herself off the barstool, straightening her dress and hair before she starts making her way towards her husband and this…Rachel.

“Hey, Fal,” he greets her with a smile when he catches her in his peripheral.

“Hey, baby,” she says before spinning him around to face her.

“Baby? Since when —”

She cuts him off with an aggressive push against his lips, shoving her tongue into his mouth when he gives her just the slightest amount of access. She can tell he’s shocked by her actions with the way he sort of gasps into the kiss, finding that it takes him a moment to adjust to her movements and match her motions. She lets their tongues tangle in the middle for a few seconds, hearing the flashes of the photographers going off behind her, not even letting that distract her from her task at hand.

They weren’t usually ones for public displays of affection, especially at events like these where there was surely going to be press, but she can’t find it in her to care at the moment. Not when this tall, young blonde off to the side of them was so clearly flirting with her husband right out in the open. She just had to saunter on over to her husband when she saw it, had to make her presence know and make her claim on what was rightfully hers.

When she finally lets herself pull away, she finds the blonde staring at them, mouth agape from the same stance she was in only seconds ago. The girls green eyes are wide in disbelief and her jaw stays dropped open before them, no words coming out.

“I’m not sure we’ve been introduced,” Fallon says with a sly smile, tucking her hand into Liam’s grip. “I’m Fallon. Liam’s wife.”


	6. I dare you to...

“Oh, my favorite couple!” Sam exclaimed when Fallon and Liam walked into the suite hand in hand.

The room was twice the size of the one Fallon had lived in for a couple of months after moving out of the manor. As they looked around, they noticed Sam had most likely moved the couch and the two armchairs to make more room for them to sit around the coffee table.

“I wasn’t really sure you were coming but I’m glad you did!” He pulled Fallon into a hug and she groaned at the unexpected gesture of affection.

“Sam,” she spoke shortly as she tightened the grip of her fingers around Liam’s, hoping he would understand her message and would pull her away from Sam’s embrace.

“We wouldn’t miss it, Sam,” Liam offered him a smile.

“Should I be offended that you brought a bottle of tequila to my game night?” Sam asked Fallon when he noticed the bottle in her hand.

“It’s Friday night, Sam. I was supposed to be having sex with my fiancé,” the brunette rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t sure how much alcohol you would offer us during this game night or whatever it is that you planned so here,” she pushed the bottle gently against his chest until he reached for it with both his hands.

“I know you, Fallon. I wouldn’t have invited you if I didn’t have plenty of liquor in this room,” Sam chuckled, pointing to the small by cart next to the window.

“She had a stressful day,” Liam mentioned. “This grumpy face will go away as soon as she starts having fun,” he touched her chin, turning her face delicately towards him before placing a quick peck against the pout currently displayed on her lips. “Right, babe?”

“Ugh,” Fallon replied with a sigh and Liam couldn’t help but laugh at the adorable yet frustrated expression on her face. She had actually been looking forward to the game night Sam had planned but when everything had gone wrong at the office that afternoon, she wanted nothing but to crawl in bed with Liam. “You better have chosen nice games, Sam,” she murmured, heading towards the bar cart to fix herself a glass of the finest whisky he had.

“PMS?” Sam whispered at Liam once she was far enough from them.

“Tell me about it,” Liam rolled his eyes. “You’d think giving her a box of her favorite chocolate and a bouquet of red roses when she got home would help but no...” he shrugged. “The only difference is that now she’s complaining with her mouth stuffed with chocolate,”

“And you still want to marry her?” Sam teased when he noticed Fallon approaching them.

“Fallon might be a stubborn and spoiled brat sometimes,” he replied, throwing one arm around her lower back to pull her closer to him, “but she’s _my_ stubborn and spoiled brat,” he added before placing a loud kiss on her cheek.

“See? This is why you guys are my favorite,” the Latin man giggled.

“Yeah, I could say he’s kind of cute,” Fallon shrugged.

“ _Kind_ of cute?” Sam asked. “This man is a catch, Fallon! I still haven’t forgiven you for setting me up with him only to crush all my hopes and dreams by saying he was your husband,” he rolled his eyes playfully.

“It’s been two years, Sam,” she couldn’t hold the loud laugh that escaped her lungs at his frustrated confession.

“You still could have let me have my fun,” he crossed his arms against his chest. “At least for one night but no, you had to ruin your marriage to your cousin by announcing you were in fact married to the guy that’s now your fiancé,” he groaned.

“I’m not even gay!” Liam spoke up.

“Oh, he’s definitely not gay,” Fallon offered him a smirk, wrapping an arm around her fiancé’s body so she could rest her head on his shoulder.

“That’s just a minor detail,” Sam groaned, “but sharing is actually very important, you know?”

“Are you sure you’re sober, man?” Liam questioned, extremely confused with the conversation that was currently unfolding between them.

“What are you saying, Sam?” Fallon took a sip of her whisky. “Do you want a threesome?” She asked nonchalantly, as if it was the most ordinary question a person could say out loud.

“Fallon Carrington!” Sam screamed.

“Fallon!” Liam screamed at the same time, both turning towards her.

“It was an honest question!” Fallon countered. “Not an invitation!” She explained. “You know I wouldn’t share you with anyone, babe,” she placed a soft kiss on his neck.

“Hi everyone!” They all turned towards the door when they heard Kirby’s voice. “Sorry, I’m late!”

“Perfect timing actually,” Sam murmured. “Fallon’s been talking way too much,”

“In my defense, you started by flirting with my fiancé,” she shrugged.

“Oh this is going to be a long night,” Liam told Kirby as the younger girl walked further into room.

* * *

“I wrote all of our names a few times on small pieces of paper and folded them,” Sam explained as he joined them by the coffee table. “They’re all inside this bowl so we take turns picking one out,” he continued. “Then we say the name we got and the person has to choose between truth or dare,”

“I’m definitely not drunk enough for this,” Fallon murmured while finishing her drink in one gulp, closing her eyes at the whiskey’s bitter taste.

“I will start then,” Kirby spoke up. “This way we can turn clockwise and Fallon will be the last one,”

“Okay,” Liam and Sam nodded in agreement. Fallon could barely hum anything in response as her focus was mainly on the glass she was trying to refill.

“I got Liam,” Kirby showed them the paper.

“Truth,” he replied.

“Have you ever done something you totally regret?” She asked.

“Of course,” Liam couldn’t help but laugh. “Is that answer enough or are we supposed to elaborate?” He asked Sam.

“I would say that’s up to the person that asks the question,” he told his friend.

“What have you done?” Kirby requested.

“Off the top of my head... the one time I told my parents I was going on a weekend school trip but instead me and my friends drove up to the Hamptons to get high,”

“Oh my god!” Fallon exclaimed. “How come I didn’t know about this?”

“I was seventeen,” he shrugged. “Young and stupid pretty much says it all,”

“My turn,” Sam reached for a piece of paper. “Kirby,”

“Dare,” she offered him a devious smirk.

“I dare you to remove your bra right here,”

“Oh yeah, _definitely_ not drunk enough,” Fallon groaned in complaint.

“Come on, Fal, have some fun,” Liam whispered in her ear while leaning towards her.

“That was honestly an easy one,” Kirby spoke in her strong Australian accent only a couple of minutes later before placing her bra on the coffee table.

“Liam,” Sam slid the bowl towards him.

“Aww, I got you babe,” he smiled at her.

“Truth,” the brunette replied.

“Do you have any secrets I don’t know about?”

“No,” she shook her head then took another sip of her whiskey.

“Sam,” Fallon read her piece of paper out loud.

“Dare,”

“I dare you to call McDonald’s and say you can’t go to work today because you’re sick,” she told him.

“You’re mean!” Sam complained.

“ _I’m_ mean?” Fallon countered. “We can all see Kirby’s nipples through her white shirt so as far as I’m concerned, _you’re_ the mean one here,”

“Hi,” the Latin man started as he tapped the speaker icon on his iPhone. “My name is... Louis and I just wanted to let you know I can’t make it to my shift because,” he paused, looking between the other three while hoping at least one of them would save him from that nightmare.

 _“We don’t even have a Louis that works here,”_ the man on the other end of the line responded.

“Okay, well, I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be there,” Sam added before hanging up as fast as he could. “I still think you’re mean,”

“I got Fallon,” Kirby mentioned.

“Truth,”

“Have you ever sent someone nudes?” She asked.

“Yes,” Fallon nodded.

“Liam,” Sam showed them his piece of paper.

“Truth,” the light brown haired man responded.

“Have you ever peed in public?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Liam couldn’t help but laugh. “Kirby,” he read his own paper.

“Truth,” she mumbled, “before I run out of clothes,”

“Have you ever been cuffed to a bed?” He took a sip of Fallon’s drink and everyone instantly turned at him with eyes wide in surprise.

“Wow,” Kirby gasped.

“Liam Ridley, I wasn’t aware of this side of yours,” Sam teased him.

“That’s because that’s Fallon’s to know,” he threw his fiancée a wink. “But we’re all very drunk right now and those questions are always the most fun ones,”

“Yes, Liam, I’ve been cuffed to a bed before,” she told him.

“Mhmm, interesting,” Fallon murmured, showing them Liam’s name on the piece of paper she had just gotten. “Since you’re all about the sexy questions...” She began. “Have you ever fantasized about anything sexual with someone that's not me?“

“Does Scarlett Johansson count?” Liam countered only to receive a punch on his shoulder from his fiancée.

“I will take that as a no,” she groaned.

“Sam,” Kirby spoke up.

“Truth,”

“Have you ever been busted by the cops?”

“Oh god, more times than I can count, much to my own tragedy,” he murmured. “Fallon, truth or dare?” He asked.

“I’m feeling dare,”

“Well, I dare you to kiss Liam,”

“You do know they’re engaged, right?” Kirby exclaimed before he could even continue his sentence.

“Was I finished, Anders?” Sam fired back.

“Sorry,” she raised her hands up in defeat. “Go on,”

“Kiss Liam on his abs and then all the way down to the waistband of his pants,” he finished.

“What kind of dare is this?” Fallon shook her head before drinking all the whiskey still in her glass in one gulp.

“Why do _I_ have to be involved in _her_ dare?” Liam questioned.

“That’s just how it is,” Sam shrugged. “If I had to call McDonald’s, she has to do this,”

“You’re a _perv_ ,” Fallon told him while standing up. “Oh boy,” she mumbled when she lost her balance and plopped down on the couch behind her.

“Guess you’ve had enough whiskey for tonight, babe,” Liam reached for her glass and slid it across the coffee table so it would be out of her reach.

“If only I had drawn Liam’s name on my last turn,” Kirby wondered out loud. “I could have dared him to strip for us,”

“Are you using _my_ man to your own pleasure and fantasies?” Fallon asked, trying to stand still on her stilettos even though she could feel the entire room spinning around her.

“Let’s just get this over with, Fal,” Liam rolled his eyes while unbuttoning his shirt.

“Isn’t _that_ a sight for sore eyes,” Sam spoke as soon as Liam revealed his perfect defined torso.

“Ugh, Fallon, I know he’s yours but damn, girl,” Kirby murmured. “You’re lucky,”

Standing in front of Liam, Fallon offered him a small and shy smile before she started to crouch down on the floor. The first kiss was on his stomach while she held onto his waist for support. Her lips were warm from all the whiskey she had been drinking and since Liam had already drunk his own share of alcohol that night, he tried hard not to get too excited about what Fallon was currently doing to him.

Liam tried thinking of anything that would keep his blood from rushing south like puppies, ponies or even bunnies as Fallon covered his abdomen with kisses. She had probably done a lot more than Sam had actually dared her to but she was clearly in no hurry to stop and if he was being honest, he wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to.

The worst part of that dare was definitely when he glanced down at her to see that she was already staring up at him. Their eyes met instantly and she threw him a devious look before she placed a couple more kisses below his belly button. He had to take a deep breath when she placed what he thought was the last kiss right above his pants. What managed to catch all of them by surprise but mostly Liam himself, however, was when Fallon moved even lower and placed a quick but soft kiss on his crotch.

“Fallon, that’s enough,” Liam grabbed her arm and pulled her back up.

“Man, this girl can really perform a dare,” Sam clapped his hands proudly.

“I think it’s best we go home,” Liam mentioned.

“Oh come on!” Kirby complained. “We only did like three our four rounds of questions,”

“I feel sick,” Fallon murmured while resting her head on his shoulder.

“Maybe the reason why she can do that is because she drank almost the entire bottle of whiskey by herself,” Sam told Kirby.

“Do you want to throw up?” Liam asked his fiancée while playing softly with her long brown locks.

“No,” she shook her head.

“Let me get my jacket and your purse and we will go,” he told her. “Stay here,” he sat her down on the couch then buttoned up his shirt while gathering their stuff. “Sorry to cut your night short, guys,”

“That’s okay, man. We’re all pretty drunk, anyway,” Sam replied as he tried to sit on the armchair behind him without much success. “Just make sure she’s okay,”

“I will,” Liam nodded. “Takes for having us, Sam. I promise she will behave better next time,” he chuckled, reaching for the knob to open the door for Fallon.

“I love you so much, Liam,” Fallon mumbled, throwing one arm around his neck for balance before leaning against his side.

“I love you too, babe,” he couldn’t help but roll his eyes when she started putting all her body’s weight on him.

Liam knew her too well to know she wasn’t faking how drunk she was just to get out of game night. She was totally wasted and he wouldn’t be surprised if she started throwing up anytime soon even though she kept saying she wasn’t going to. Holding her tight against him, he walked them towards the elevator while glancing at her every ten seconds to make sure she was still awake.

“We’re going home, okay?” Liam spoke softly before placing a heartwarming kiss on the top of her head.

“I want to continue that dare,” Fallon murmured as they stepped into the elevator. “No pants in my way though,”

“The only thing you’re getting tonight is an endless amount of water, an Advil and maybe some crackers,” he spoke seriously. “You would be getting lucky hadn’t you decided to get this wasted but you did so,” he shrugged. “I’m dragging you to the shower as soon as we get home and then you’re going straight to sleep, Miss Carrington,”

“It’s Mrs. Ridley actually,” she mumbled, half incoherently.

“Not yet, babe,” he giggled.

“It sounds better,” she rolled her eyes. “Can you call me that?”

“I can call you whatever you want, Fal,” Liam laughed. “Just promise me you won’t get this wasted again. I really don’t like when you drink this much alcohol,”

“I promise,” Fallon whispered. “I feel really sick, babe,”

“I know, Fal, I know. Just hold on, okay?” he kissed her forehead gently before handing the valet his card. “We will be home soon,”


	7. fourth of july

She really can’t believe the lengths he went to for Independence Day. 

Fallon’s eyes scan over their very own backyard, taking in all the decorations and activities he’d set up for the both of them on that hot, humid and sunny Saturday. Liam’s off by the grill, underneath the patio, cooking up burgers and hot dogs for the pair of them. On the table behind him, which was covered in an American themed table cloth, he’d lined up a bunch of other Fourth of July themed foods. Cupcakes frosted with red, white and blue frosting, strawberries, blueberries, and bananas mixed together in a bowl of fruit salad. There’s red and blue jello shots lined up, along with some rum based drink with blue curaçao and another vodka inspired drink with that bright red grenadine syrup he’d whisked up. He’s also got a bowl of popcorn he’d popped fresh that morning, some red and blue white chocolate swirls mixed in throughout it to really emphasize the theme of the day. 

There’s a few coolers he’d lined up underneath the shady balcony as well, one full of water bottles and the other full of beer. And then her eyes wander to the biggest of all activities he’d set up for their day, a volley ball net and a game of corn hole off in the vivid green grass. And then, there’s an inflatable water slide leading to the deep end of the pool. Because of course he’d secure a rental on one of those, even when she really wasn’t a water person to begin with, even when he knows she would have been content doing absolutely nothing for the holiday with him. He just had to make sure she had the ‘full Fourth of July experience,’ as he’d worded to her verbatim only hours ago. 

There’s red and white and blue streamers lining the outdoor patio and even the balcony above, and he’d somehow managed to cover their entire backyard in the same three hues of star shaped balloons, tying them to various surfaces throughout the vast space. She can already see the little bulbed lights lined up along those same balcony edges, too, for later in the night, she assumes. 

Okay, so maybe she can believe it, actually. 

Liam really didn’t like to skimp on things when it came to her, always making sure to give her the best experience he could possibly give her. 

“Hey, Fal!” His voice shakes her from the gazes she was making around their landscape, his bathing suit clad body calling over to her with a spatula in his hand. “Burgers are ready!”

She swings her legs over the side of her lounge chair, slipping her Gucci flip flops on her feet to negate the hot pavement from burning the soles of her feet. She makes her way to him and accepts the plate he’d already made up for her, complete with potato salad, pasta salad and some potato chips as well. 

“Thank you,” she mumbles in his direction, sticking her pouty lips out for a kiss; he happily obliges. She sits at their small bistro table away from the hot sun, Liam sitting directly across from her as she takes a bite at the salt and pepper flavored potato chips. “You really went all out today.”

“Only the best for you, babe,” he smiles at her with that smug look. There’s sweat dripping down his bare chest from the hot and blaring Atlanta heat as he squirts a hearty amount of ketchup on his burger before closing it up with the top of the bun. “May I offer you an alcoholic beverage?”

She shrugs, “Sure.”

“Would you like a True Blue or a Raging Red?” 

She send him a glare out of the corner of her eye. “You named them?”

“Well, yeah,” he says. “You have to name them.”

“No, you…” She brushes her thoughts off with a shake of her head, realizing it wasn’t even worth it to give him a hard time when he’d gone to all this trouble for her today, just to make their first fourth in their new home special and filled with memories. “Give me the blue one.”

She sips the bright blue liquid back, watching his amusing eyes watch her the entire time the cool drink slides down her throat. “Good right?”

“It’s good,” she says. “Nothing special, but it’s okay.”

They stumble into silence for the next few moments, busy with their burgers and American themed side dishes and drinks. The only sound that’s heard is forks digging into the paper plates and the plastic cups being placed back against the small table; she’d argued against the paper cutlery, but he’d won that battle in the end. It only takes minutes for them to clear most of their plates, stomachs getting full as they start slowing down on the amount of food they ingest. 

“I can’t wait to get you on to that water slide.”

“It’s funny that you think that’s happening.”

Liam only smirks at her, a sly smile and gaze appearing in his eyes, almost taking her words as a challenge. “Oh, it’s happening.”

“It’s not, but that’s cute. Stay positive, babe.” Fallon pushes herself backwards in her chair, lifting her body up and moving towards the direction of the two coolers he’d set up against their home. “I’m gonna go get a water, do you want one?”

“Yeah, grab me one, too.”

She’s leaned over the plastic, blue cooler picking at an ice cold plastic bottle when she feels his hands slip against her waist, lifting her into the air. “Liam, no!”

She doesn’t even have time to process what’s happening before she feels herself being plunged underwater with his fingers still tight against her hips beneath the surface. She pushes her head up from beneath the soft ripples, meeting his laughter with a small punch to his right shoulder. Her hair is soaked with the crystal clear, chlorinated water and she’s horrified the moment she realizes her makeup is most likely running down her face.

“I told you I’d get you in here.”

“You’re infuriating,” she says with a weak sense of annoyance, still tangled in his arms with no intent to leave them anytime soon. “Liam, my hair.”

“It looks fine, Fallon,” he laughs. “It’s just us today anyway, you don’t need to impress anyone.”

“I need to impress myself,” she argues.

He only looks at her with that gaze he’s always looking at her with, love deep beneath the surface of his eyes. Those baby blues of his bore deep into her own retinas, filling her with that overwhelming since of love she always seems to feel for him in the most random of moments. She’d thought it would have started to fade by now, that those moments would slow and she wouldn’t be overwhelmed with the need to be close to him as much, but it hadn’t faded in even the slightest. 

She was beginning to think it was going to last forever.

Her lips crash against his, softly of course, nipping at his top lip while his own mouth falls into an easy rhythm against her own. His mouth is dripping with little droplets of water, tasting of chlorine and all the other chemicals in the pool that kept it clean and crisp. Her arms weave behind his neck before she jumps up and criss-crosses her legs behind his waist. His lips are cooler than usual, no doubt a side affect from the chill temperature of the water, but she has no desire to pull away from him. She only moves back from him when she feels him detach his lips from her own, resting his forehead against hers.

“Now that you’re already soaked from head to toe though, what do you say we try that slide?”


	8. I've missed you

Liam glanced at the watch on his wrist, the one Fallon had given him as a birthday gift only a couple of months back, as he waited for the pilot to open the door of the Carrington jet. The thin black hands indicated that it was almost three in the morning and he couldn’t wait to get home, change into his pajamas and then crawl into bed with his wife.

Fallon and Blake had flew to Switzerland earlier that week, mainly to meet with the bank manager that was responsible for all the money they had in the country, but also to make sure everything was being taken of properly. It was something they had been doing once a year, ever since Fallon had turned old enough to accompany her father on those meetings.

Although they had started a joint bank account after the wedding, Fallon still had quite a reasonable balance and even investments outside of the country. While she controlled most of it online and even by phone, if ever needed, she still considered it important to meet with the manager and stockbroker in person.

“I’m so freaking tired,” Fallon groaned, looking at Blake as she walked down the large steps that led to the ground.

“It’s a good thing your husband came all the way here just to pick you up in the middle of the night then,” Blake mentioned, gesturing towards the light haired man standing only a few feet from the jet.

Liam had one hand in the pocket of his jeans but the other was busy holding a small bouquet of white lilies. He looked a bit tired, probably due to how late it was, but he still had the widest smile on his lips and the brightest look in his eyes.

Fallon gasped as soon as she laid her eyes on her husband. During the flight, she had even asked Blake to give her a ride home since she didn’t want to wake Liam up. It was certainly a surprise to see her husband standing there, leaning against the dark blue Tesla and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she walked towards him with a huge smile on her face.

“You didn’t have to come,” she spoke softly, setting her Louis Vuitton suitcase on the floor before accepting the bouquet of flowers he was offering her.

“I’ve missed you,” Liam replied in the same tone, placing his hands on her waist so he could pull her closer to him.

Before any of them could say anything else, he leaned forward and crashed his lips against hers. A week was definitely a really long time when it came to newlyweds spending time apart so it was no surprise that it only took seconds for Fallon to allow his tongue to tangle around hers.

She let out a passionate moan as their kiss became even more desperate, their lips moving together in perfect sync. Her free hand flew to his hair, pulling on his short strands as she deepened the kiss, leaning her body over his and pushing him further against the car.

Liam tightened his grip on her body as their tongues gathered up speed, fighting for dominance as Fallon pressed her body against his. He was just about to slide his hand lower, reaching the hem of her pants and completely forgetting where they were, when they heard a not so subtle cough.

Breaking apart, Fallon covered her mouth with her hand as Liam looked down at his feet, blushing in total embarrassment after realizing what had just happened in front of his father-in-law.

“Guess you won’t be needing that ride home anymore, right?” Blake asked his daughter.

“Right,” Fallon replied shortly, nodding.

“Well, I’ll be heading home then,” he pointed towards his driver, who was waiting for him by the Bentley while holding open the door to the backseat. “You kids should do the same, by the way,” he added. “It’s late,”

“We will,” it was all Liam managed to speak, holding Fallon right in front of his body so she could keep him from embarrassing himself even more in front of Blake.

“Goodnight, daddy,” Fallon offered him a smile before he entered the car. “Now where were we?” She asked, turning back towards her husband.

“Right here,” he murmured, rubbing his lips against hers in a torturous and teasing pace before running his tongue across her top lip. “God, I’ve missed you so much,” he bit on her bottom lip and Fallon couldn’t control the loud yet hushed moan that escaped her lugs when he pulled on it with his teeth.

“Next time you’re coming with me,” she informed him, letting the hand that was playing with his hair fall to her side before sliding it between their bodies.

“I think I’m satisfied with how my money is being taken care of here in America, babe,” he shrugged, closing her eyes as Fallon placed soft kisses on his cheek.

“I didn’t say that because of the money, Liam,” she groaned. “You’re usually smarter than this,” she chuckled while teasing his earlobe with her tongue.

“It’s three in the morning, Fallon,” he murmured. “I wanted to surprise you since you’ve been gone all week but that doesn’t mean I’m not tired,” he laughed softly.

“Too tired for this?” Fallon questioned, letting go of his ear so she could stare deeply into his bright blue eyes that she was simply crazy for while sliding her hand down his body.

“Well, not for that,” Liam swallowed hard when he felt the coldness of her hand meeting the warmth of his body as it bypassed not only the hem of his jeans but the one of his boxers as well.

“Should I continue then, Mr. Ridley?” She asked, her eyes still locked on his.

“Oh, please do, Mrs. Ridley,”


	9. i'm sorry

Monopoly with Fallon Carrington was no easy feat.

For starters, she was competitive as hell and didn’t boast well with any sign that the game wasn’t favoring her for a winning outcome. They’d played a few times together now, her always coming out on the triumphant side, because of course she was good at this game. Of course she was as skilled as can be in a game all about money and finances and dominating an entire city.

It’s almost like the game was built entirely for her.

He can’t deny that it’d crossed his mind that maybe she’d managed to hide weighted dice up her sleeve, since it seemed that just about every time she rolled those dice they worked out perfectly in her favor. And it’s not like he expected her to be bad at the game or anything, but maybe just slightly more graceful with the way she handled herself while playing, or even about her wins. But of course, those wins were also an over the top spectacle all the same.

She’d just purchased Boardwalk Empire, albeit the one property she sought out most on the entire board and he’s not really surprised the objective she strived for most was scoring the most expensive property on the entirety of the board. He’s pulling the little white property card out of the pile he has secured on his side of the game when he notices her left hand out of the corner of his eye sliding over towards the money in the bank, tugging a few extra hundred dollar bills in her direction and laying them in her own stack of cash.

He hands her the card and she slips it under the side of the game board, her place for safekeeping, before she leans her body forward and hands him the two identical dice muttering a simple, “Your turn.”

He eyes her carefully, concerned that there isn’t even a single fleck of worry in her eyes at what she just did. She’s not even concerned she was just caught red handed, it clearly hadn’t even crossed her mind. She’d thought she was slick enough to take what she’d wanted undetected. She just looks at him with wide eyes waiting for him to make his move, eyes centering in on the dice as she waits for him to pick them up in his hands.

“Okay, are we not going to discuss the fact that you’re stealing money from the bank right now?”

Fallon simply scoffs at his words, “No, I’m not.”

“You’re totally cheating on me,” he erupts with a soft chuckle, hands flailing and pointing in the direction of her current cash pile on her side of the board. He can’t help but be amused at her brassiness, at how bold she was to do it when their was a wide open spot for her to be caught in the act.

“I’m not cheating,” she says simply, not even an ounce of hesitation in her tone. Proud, almost, that she could say it with a straight face and not shutter so much a shift in her facial features for him to call her bluff. And if he hadn’t seen her physically swipe the yellow shaded bills from the bank, he’d probably have totally believed her denial. “Roll the dice, let’s go.”

“I just saw you swipe an extra three hundred dollar bills from the bank,” he claims, with his hand still held out in the direction of the little cash stock she’d made for herself throughout their game so far. How much of that she’d actually earned on her own, well, that was now something he was questioning. “Fallon, c’mon.”

“Liam,” her small voice hums, irritation building in that tone of hers - it’s when he knows she’s close to confessing. “You must be seeing things.”

He can’t help but laugh at her words, the way she’s trying to hard to dispel him away from what he’s saying. It’s almost comical, and in some ways it is; Fallon Carrington hated losing so bad she’d resorted to cheating at a classic board game to secure herself the win. “I just saw it with my own eyes!”

Fallon only shrugs. “So?”

“That’s cheating.”

“It’s not cheating, Liam,” Fallon breathes out easy, no shame in what’d she’d done at all; in fact she seemed quite proud of herself for having almost slid that action past him undetected. Even though he’s sure he’d gone unnoticed to it happening several times before now that he’d caught on to what she was doing. “I’m simply doing what I need to do to win the game.”

“Yes, that is what most people call cheating, Fallon,” he says to her, pressing two fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Do you do this every time we play? Is this why you never lose? Is that why you’re undefeated against me?”

“I suppose that it’s possible,” she drags that last word out on her tongue, pausing a few seconds before continuing. “That my strategy is pretty good at securing me a win.”

“Oh my god,” Liam says, running a hand through his short golden locks. “Well, alright, then. No point in continuing the game if you’re just going to win anyways, right?”

“No!” Fallon’s voice squeaks out of her tiny body immediately after he sits himself up and settles down on the couch, sinking in to fluffy surface along with the pillows surrounding him. He watches as she follows suit, lifting her weight up and heading in the direction of the couch just the same. The string of words that she pipes out next are fast and quick, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.”

“What’s the point of playing if you’re just going to cheat your way to the top?”

Fallon sinks herself onto his lap, straddling him as she settles her weight against him. Her hands rest gently against his shoulder blades, his hands coming up to settle against her hips on instinct alone. His fingers dig in to her skin beneath the robe she’s currently wearing, rubbing circular patterns against the silky fabric of the pink piece of clothing covering her body. Her blue orbs look straight into his own eyes, but she’s silent for a moment as her gaze bores deep into him, her look filled with love and warmth and adoration all the same. Her hands begin to slide upwards against his body, making a quick stop at the base of his neck before she settles her palms against his face and cupping his cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” she mutters so softly he can barely hear the words, eyes trailing away from his while she whispers the words out.

“Could you repeat that?” Liam’s teasing tone comes out, her eyes rolling as soon as the words slip off his tongue when her eyes find his once more. “I’m not sure I heard you correctly.”

“I’m sorry,” she says, breath tickling against the stubble on his face before she leans in to press her lips against his. It’s soft and light and teasing, her lips moving against his in the gentlest manner before she starts applying a little more pressure. Her lips encapsulate his bottom lip entirely before she’s already teasing him with a little pull away from his mouth. Her teeth graze against his lips when she pulls her mouth away from his, a satisfying look on her face when his eyes open wide again. It’s quick and teasing, the kiss, the kind of kiss that left him wondering and desiring more of her all the same.

“And what are we sorry for?”

Her lips press against his once more in a soft peck, “I’m sorry for cheating.”

His hands move to her thighs, teasing the bare skin with his random movements against her pale skin. “And we’re not going to cheat at Monopoly again, right?”

“I,” Fallon pauses, a pondering look turning in her eyes. “I can’t make that promise.”


	10. a caribbean pda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, surprise!! This one is coming early!! Hope you like it!
> 
> Also, thank you so much for 100 kudos!! Heather and I couldn't be happier that you're all so in love with this story! <3

“Oh, you did _not_ do that!” Fallon screamed, dropping the book she was deeply engrossed in when she felt drops of water hitting her body.

While Liam had been enjoying the refreshing water of the adults only pool of the resort for about an hour, Fallon had been lying on a comfortable double sunbed, under the largest pool umbrella the VIP area had to offer.

It was only nine o’clock and some of the guests had already left for their day adventures outside the resort while some of them were still inside the perfectly air conditioned restaurant enjoying their breakfast. Since the pool was considerably empty at that time in the morning and Fallon knew better than to argue with her husband about leaving their room, she had chosen the most secluded place to relax with her romance novel.

Liam kept glancing at her every five minutes, watching and sometimes even rolling her eyes at how lost in the book she was. She was wearing a dark summer hat and her favorite Prada sunglasses, which covered most of her face and protected her from the hot Caribbean sun, but he was admittedly starting to get bored.

“Oh, I believe I did,” Liam shrugged, chuckling at the adorable yet clearly annoyed pout on her lips.

“And why do you think that’s funny?” Fallon raised one of her arms, grabbing the leg of her sunglasses between her thumb and index finger. Moving them an inch down, she threw him a displeased glare before placing it back on her face.

“Did you seriously fly four hours to read?” He questioned. “Why come all the way to Aruba for a romantic trip with your husband when you could read on our comfortable couch?”

“That’s an interesting question, babe,” she replied. “Why come all the way to Aruba for a romantic trip with your wife when you can play like a ten year old boy in our own pool?”

“I’m exercising,” Liam rolled his eyes. “How do you think I keep this body you love so much?”

“The exercise I wanted to do this morning burned just as many calories,” she groaned, reaching for her book and holding it in front of her to prevent him from looking at her face. “And your wife would be a lot less grumpy had you chosen that one so,” it was all she said before her eyes travelled down to the cream colored page, letting out another frustrated groan when she noticed the drops of water on it. “Guess you’re not that great at choosing the best option,” she murmured but used a tone loud enough for him to listen.

“I think I chose just fine,” he countered, pushing himself off the pool only a few feet from where she was.

“If you as much as _think_ about ruffling your wet hair next to me,” Fallon spoke up when he started walking towards her, his boy shorts still crumpled at the top of his thighs.

“What?” Liam asked. “What are you going to do, babe?” He teased, reaching for one of the neatly folded towels before sitting down on the sunbed.

“Liam Ridley,” she mumbled, mostly as a warning when he started to slid one of his hands up her leg.

“I thought maybe _you_ would want to ruffle it?” He suggested, his tone becoming more and more hushed as his hand approached her bikini bottom.

“That offer was only valid between the walls of our room,” Fallon told him. “Since you still chose to come down for breakfast and unnecessary time under the sun, I’m sorry to inform you that such offer no longer stands,”

“Are you sure?” Liam used his free hand to put her book down on the small table next to them but refused to take his eyes off her face the whole time.

“What the _hell_ are you doing?!” She exclaimed, slapping his hand _hard_ when his fingers started to untangle the small knot she had tied on the right side of her hips.

“You’re _way_ too stressed, babe,” he rolled his eyes as the words left his mouth, pretending he wasn’t aware of what his fingers were currently doing to the poor excuse of a black fabric she was currently wearing. “It’s not even ten and you’ve already had three mimosas... even _you_ would be relaxed by now, Fallon,”

“What are you planning to do about it, if I may ask?” Fallon crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Go down on me in a public place?” She rolled her eyes, certainly not amused with his behavior.

“You know what?” Liam looked around, turning his head from left to right and then the other way to make sure there was nobody else there. “I just might,” he added with a soft and nonchalantly shrug.

“If you undo that knot I’m going to get up, get my stuff and I will fly back to Atlanta before you can even say you’re sorry,” she threatened him.

“Are you okay?” He asked. It was definitely a risky question and there was a great chance she would answer with a sassy reply but he just had to know if something was bothering her. “Are you grumpy because I woke you up before seven or is something wrong?”

“PMS, probably,” Fallon replied shortly. “I need more alcohol,” she glanced at the empty champagne glass and pushed herself forward in an attempt of sitting up, only to be stopped by her husband.

“No, you don’t,” Liam was firm. “Will you please tell me what’s wrong, Fal?”

“Nothing is wrong, I’m sorry,” she let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m just irritated,”

“Do you want to go back to our room?” He suggested.

“Not really,” Fallon admitted, “I just don’t understand why another mimosa would be so bad,”

“I’m not even going to bother replying to that,” Liam murmured.

“Then stop trying to help and go back to your beloved chlorine water,” she groaned.

“Do you want to go back to Atlanta?” He tried again. “I thought this weekend getaway would be nice after the stressful week you’ve had but clearly, I was wrong,”

“No, I don’t want to go back to Atlanta,”

“Can I at least give you a kiss or am I going to be shouted at if I lean forward?” He asked as his last resort to cheer her up.

“Yeah, _that_ you can do,” Fallon nodded.

Settling his right hand on her waist, Liam leaned in and captured her lips in a gentle kiss. In a matter of seconds, Fallon’s hand flew to the back of his neck as she opened her lips slightly, enough to allow his tongue entrance, and she couldn’t help but moan when he began to deepen the kiss.

Fallon tightened her grip on him, pulling him against her as hard as she could as their tongues tangled around each other, battling for dominance. Her free hand flew upwards to hold onto her hat that almost fell off her head when Liam scooted forward, pressing his wet bare chest against hers while biting on her bottom lip. His eyes were still closed when she opened hers for the briefest of moments and a soft smile appeared on her lips during the short break they took for some well deserved oxygen, only to dive back into another kiss.

For a couple of minutes, both Fallon and Liam forgot where they were and that the later it got, the more people got down to enjoy the swimming pool. It only took them getting lost in each other’s swollen lips, for Fallon to forget the reason why she had been acting off towards her amazing husband all morning and for Liam to forget why he had even chosen an empty pool over morning sex with his beautiful wife.

Fallon’s hand played with his hair, twirling her fingers around the light locks that certainly needed a haircut while their lips moved in perfect sync. Squeezing her waist gently, Liam allowed his left hand to move slightly closer to her body, reaching the end of one of the black ties of her bikini bottom before pulling on it slowly. They were both out of breath when they finally broke the kiss, chuckling at each other at their current public display of affection once they noticed some guests staring at them with not a pleased look on their faces.

“I feel like I need to ask this again...” Liam began. “What do you say we go back to our room?” He suggested with the sexy and devious smirk he knew she was crazy for. “You know... so I can finally undo this knot?”

“Three hours, Liam,” Fallon replied and he couldn’t help but frown, confused. “I dress in the tiniest bikini I have and it takes you three _hours_ to ask me that,” she shook her head in disbelief.

“ _That’s_ why you’ve been acting so cranky all morning?” His eyes widened and his jaw fell on the floor when he finally realized what was happening.

“There was a time when you wouldn’t even let me leave the room in this kind of outfit,” she glanced down at her body, gesturing between the top and bottom of her black bikini, “because you couldn’t keep your hands off me,” she added.

“I thought you would like to enjoy some of the things this resort has to offer since we barely left our room yesterday,” Liam shrugged. “Like this pool,” he continued, “or the incredibly bar it has to offer,” he added as soon as he noticed her rolling her eyes under the dark sunglasses. “Or maybe swim with the dolphins while snorkeling in Boca Catalina?”

“I have _no_ _idea_ of what that means,” Fallon murmured.

“So we flew four hours and spent thousands of dollars just to do what we do pretty much every night at home?” He questioned.

“Don’t act so disappointed, babe,” she replied. “Our bedroom is great and everything but it doesn’t have a view to this incredibly blue Caribbean sea,”

“You don’t even like the beach,” he shrugged, pouting.

“I do like staring at it when I’m on top of you,” Fallon whispered, pulling him in for a quick kiss before throwing him a teasing wink. “So, are you going to undo that knot or are you going back to that pool?” She asked. “We could get you some beach buckets and shovels at the souvenir’s shop at the lobby, if you want to have the whole fun package!” She exclaimed playfully.

“I think I’d rather undo this knot,” Liam could barely speak those words out loud as his eyes were totally focused on the side the black piece while his fingers continued to play with its ties.

“Then undo it,” it was all Fallon said before adjusting her large summer hat.

Leaning back against the inclined sunbed, she couldn’t help but chuckle at his face, his mouth hanging open and his bright blue eyes just about to jump out of their sockets at the three words she had just thrown at him, as if they meant absolutely nothing. All Liam was able to do was swallow hard, trying to process what she had just spoken while she crossed her arms and placed them right behind her head but if there was one thing he could not resist, it was finally pulling on the tie that made the right side of her bikini bottom fall loose.


	11. shelter from the rain

The forecast that morning had been clear.

Free of rain, storms or any tumultuous weather that could have hindered their plans for the day.

Calling for nothing but sunshine and clear blue skies.

But as things typically were in Atlanta’s hot and sunny summers, rain was _always_ imminent, ready to strike at any moment of the day. He wouldn’t exactly consider the Georgia capital a tropical climate, but things always heated up enough in the summer months for a rain storm to form at any given moment.

It was just something they had to live with, humidity clashing in the sky with low pressure and forming some precipitation at high heights.

Just like today, apparently.

It was _indeed_ a hot Atlanta morning when they’d both rolled over in bed, the hot, humid and sticky air hitting them from even inside the air conditioned manor. But, they’d holed themselves up in the air conditioning for the past week, busying both of themselves with work with little to no desire to venture into the outdoors at all.

But he couldn’t stand the thought of spending the entirety of another day inside the Carrington Manor, watching as Fallon vigorously answered emails, angrily took phone calls and constantly muttered about how incompetent her staff was. 

All while he did his best to perfect his next book - his deadline was fast approaching for his first draft, but he was getting nowhere; hitting a complete brick wall with no inspiration in sight.

He needed a change of scenery.

He needed _out_ of the manor.

In all honesty, he’s surprised she agreed to go shopping with him so quickly; especially in such warm weather, but he doesn’t question her easy demeanor for the day, managing to escape the manor with her by ten that morning.

They make it to Buckhead Village in only twenty minutes, a six-block shopping district just outside of downtown Atlanta. It wasn’t exactly Fallon’s go-to for shopping, he knew that, but he enjoyed the outside shopping location over the indoor mall she seemed to gravitate towards - the one filled with designer names.

Besides, he mostly wanted to escape the manor for a change of pace compared to their past week. Sure, he’d told her he needed some new socks and underwear so she was more open to the adventure he suggested, but he also knew he could order all of that online. He was pretty sure she knew that, too, which makes him question if she wanted out of the house and a break from work almost as bad as he did.

“Alright, where are we going for your underwear?” She reaches closer to him with her right hand, grabbing at his hand and tangling their fingers together despite the heat, still wanting to be close to him.

“I don’t know,” he says. “Where should we go?”

“ _You’re_ the one who dragged me out here,” she responds, “It’s _your_ choice.”

“I didn’t hear much of an argument from you about going out today,” he tugs her a little closer to him, and despite the pout on her face she scootches closer to him. “I’m thinking you wanted to get out as much as I did.”

“Maybe,” she says with a small voice. “Why don’t we go to Hermés first? You like it there.”

“I don’t know, Fal. I don’t think we’re going to find me any underwear there,” he says, already pulling her in a different direction from the building she’d suggested. “Let’s try Moncler first.”

“You’re not gonna find underwear at Moncler either, Liam,” she says.

“I _know_ that. We’re going to Ralph Lauren for those. But I still want to shop around,” he says softly. “And you just want to go to Hermés for a new handbag anyways.”

“If I wanted a new handbag, we’d be at Gucci right now,” she confirms. “Whatever. Go where you want, I don’t care. As long as you still buy me that lunch you promised me.”

* * *

He’d come out of Moncler empty handed.

He tries two places after his first stop, Billy Reid and Theory. He’d walked out of both stores without anything in his hand besides Fallon’s smaller one still tangled in his. He can see the frustration in her already building, the way her eyes crease together against her face and her eyebrows furrow together; he can’t help but smile at the way the irritation is painted so clearly on her face.

“I think we should head to Hermés next,” he suggests.

“I literally told you to try Hermés over an hour again,” her crystal blue eyes roll back, “But, no, you just _had_ to try these other shops first.”

“Well,” he says, “I’m ready to try looking there, now.”

“You better be buying me one hell of a lunch for all this walking around I’m doing.”

“You know I’ll take good care of you,” he says, moving his head a little closer to hers, their lips only inches apart as they tease each other. “I always do, don’t I?”

“You do alright,” she says back as he can feel her breath against his stubble. She’s about to push her mouth against his when she stops suddenly, a puzzled look taking over her. She wipes against her cheek with her thumb, proceeding to examine it carefully before looking up at him. “Was that rain?”

“Rain? The forecast said — ”

But then he feels it, too.

Little droplets of water starting to dance against his face, softly falling from the sky as they make little splashes against his face, the duration between each drop getting shorter and shorter as the sky opened up above them.

He looks up the sky then, dark clouds circling around them, sunshine long gone behind the grey now hovering over Atlanta. It’s suddenly getting darker by the second, soft rumbles starting to make their way into the city from the east of them, volume increasing with each time the ground shook.

The gloomy grey color gets darker and darker the father he looks out to the west, the shadows in the sky telling him these weren’t just fair weather clouds that were going to pass with a few sprinkles before the sun appeared again.

No, the sky was about to fully open at _any_ second.

Rain about to fall from the sky fast and furiously, ready to soak them to their very core.

“You’ve _got_ to be kidding me.”

It happens in the blink of an eye, before either of them have time to process what’s really about to happen, before either of them have the chance to take cover under any surface that would give them refuge from the water falling from the haunting clouds circling above them.

He tugs her along with him, pulling both of their bodies under the awning outside the store they’d just wandered out of, his shirt already wet from the rain and he no sooner doubts her maxi-length dress is equally as moist as his own attire

“This wouldn’t have happened if you just listened to me in the first place,” she mumbles under their coverage, “I suggested Hermés first, if you recall.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“And if we’d just gone to Hermés first like I said, we’d have already been done shopping. We’d have already been at the restaurant and I’d be eating a nice meal at Le Bilboquet,” her voice dwells on, “But, no,” she continues, dragging out that long vowel at the end. “You can’t just _listen_ to me for once, can you?”

He can’t help but admire her as she rages on, dragging on and on and on about the current weather predicament they’d gotten themselves stuck in. Little droplets splashing against the cement sidewalks as it pools in little puddles beneath their feat, as her voice carries the precipitation falling from the sky.

“You know, I don’t understand why men are like this,” she crosses her arms across her chest, turning to face him. “You have to go into every store before you make a decision on buying something, you have to look at everything, and then you always end up deciding you don’t like anything anyways and that you need to think about it some more,” Fallon’s eyes roll back further into her sockets. “Why can’t you just like something and buy it like normal people?”

And _still_ , he can’t help but just _smile_ at her as she talks, muttering on and on and on.

“What? Is this funny to you or something?”

But then she catches his eyes on her, her head tilting to the left with the most frustrating glare etched on her face that he can’t even help smile bigger at that.

“What?”

She’s got this little pout on her face and he _adores_ it.

He adores _her._

He’s so focused on _her_ and her facial expressions and how blue her eyes look in that dress she’s wearing that she bought with him last week, that he can’t even focus on what she’s saying anymore. He hears a few words she’s spitting out between her breaths, but all he can think about is how much he wants to kiss her.

So he does.

He grabs at her wrists that are flailing in the air, catching her off guard when he pushes his lips against hers.

She seems shocked at first, a little shell shocked when he first starts applying some pressure against her mouth. But she seems to catch on quick, puckering up for his lips within seconds and capturing his bottom lip in between hers, applying some pressure against his mouth just the same, finally allowing them to find the natural and steady rhythm they’re so accustomed to.

And despite the words she’d been using early, he can tell by the way she leaned in so easily to the kiss that she’s not really mad at him.

In fact, counter to the fact that she’d never admit it to him, he’s pretty sure she’s actually having _fun_.


	12. nose kiss

The large bedroom was pitch black when Liam opened his eyes, closing them shut only a second later as drowsiness took over him. As usual, he had been facing Fallon’s side of the bed in his sleep but when he noticed the empty space in front of him, his first instinct was to touch the forgotten pillow and abandoned mattress.

At the feeling of cold fabric against the warm skin of his hand, Liam immediately turned onto his other side. While finding her spot empty in the middle of the night didn’t exactly come as a surprise to him, he could only sigh when he laid his eyes on the bright red numbers of the old digital clock he insisted on keeping on his nightstand. 3:27AM.

“Oh Fallon,” he murmured, rubbing his hands against his eyes as a long and exhausted yawn escaped his lungs.

Throwing his legs to the side, Liam sat up on the edge of the bed as he gathered both the strength and courage he needed to get out of bed on such a chilly night. Placing his feet on the hardwood floor, he ran a hand through his hair before pushing his body off the mattress. As Liam stepped out of their bedroom, he didn’t even have to walk further down the hallway to notice the lights in her office were on. He could even hear the soft sound of her voice echoing through the second floor of the dark and quiet mansion but instead of checking on her, he decided to head down to the kitchen first. However, not before making a quick stop at the most recently occupied room. 

Placing his hand on the knob, Liam carefully pushed the door open and poked his head inside. A smile appeared on his lips and his heart filled with joy when he laid his eyes on the two months old, sound asleep in the classic white crib. For a couple of minutes, he watched as her chest moved up and down in the softest of movements, her calm breathing providing him with a sense of peacefulness that he didn’t even realize how much he needed it.

Sometimes Liam found it hard to take his eyes off his baby girl. He could swear he would stare at her for endless hours if he hadn’t so many other things to do throughout the day. For the past two months, his only concern and favorite pastime had been gazing that tiny person. The baby girl that was the result of the most terrifying accident they had ever experienced but was also their biggest and most heart warming surprise. The baby girl that was clearly her mother through and through but that deep down, was half him and half his wife.

Liam figured it was time to leave and resume the search for Fallon when he noticed his daughter starting to stir on the small mattress. Taking a step backwards, as slow and silent as possible, he walked out of the light pink bedroom before closing the door shut behind him. His trip down to the kitchen was short although his half asleep state prevented him from moving around the kitchen at the speed he was normally used to.

In less than ten minutes, however, before the loud clock in the wide hallway could announce it was already four o’clock in the morning, Liam returned to the second floor. With his fingers gripping tightly onto the red handle of the souvenir mug they had gotten on their baby moon, he used his free hand to push the door to Fallon’s office before stepping into the room.

Fallon was sitting on her chair, leaning back against it as her legs sat on the desk in front of her, the right leg crossed on top of the left one as she recorded what he could only guess was an audio message for Allison. One hand was holding the see through plastic shield of the breast pump against her nipple, the drops of milk falling rapidly into the small bottle attached to it, as the other held her brand new iPhone in front of her face.

As soon as Fallon noticed her husband walking in, her eyes instantly flew to the mug in his hands. She could smell the familiar scent of nutmeg and cocoa as he approached her and the steam coming out of the porcelain mug made her wonder how she had managed to find such a caring and incredible man to be her partner for life.

Liam was just about to speak, probably to question why not only was she still awake but was still  _working_ when she  _knew_ she needed as many hours of sleep as she could get, when he heard a soft voice echoing from her phone.

“I will let you know when I’m done with the presentation, Fallon,” Allison informed her.

“Are you kidding me?” Liam frowned, his eyes widening in both surprise and disbelief when he realized Fallon was actually on a business call. At  _four o’clock_ in the morning.

“Oh hi Liam,” the younger woman spoke up.

“I’m on speaker,” Fallon whispered.

“I’ve noticed,” he murmured before setting the mug down on her messy desk. “Allison, Fallon will call you in the morning. After you both get at least six hours of proper sleep,”

“Liam, this is important,” she mentioned, turning the chair around and pulling her legs down from the desk in order to prevent him from stealing the device from her hand.

“So is your health and your daughter,” Liam countered. “You need your sleep, come on,” he insisted. “Hang up,” he requested. “I’m pretty sure whatever you two are discussing can easily be discussed at lunch tomorrow,”

“Allison, I have to go,” Fallon groaned. “E-mail me the presentation as soon as it’s done so I can prepare my speech and please make sure you know all those numbers by heart because you’re coming with me to the meeting,”

“Consider it done,” Allison replied. “Bye Fallon, bye Liam,” she added shortly before hanging up.

“May I ask why you’re  _still_ working?” He asked as soon as she put her phone down on her desk.

“I put her down about half an hour ago but my boobs won’t stop leaking so I figured I should do something productive while I wait for the breast pump to do its job,” Fallon shrugged in response.

“Did she fall asleep before she was done eating?”

“No, she was actually pretty hungry, as always,” Fallon replied. “My body probably thinks I just had triplets or something,”

“Well, you’ve filled the bottle up to the brim so you, Mrs. Ridley, are going to bed right now and I will be in charge of her next feeding,” Liam spoke as she detached the breast shield from her body.

“I still have the other one to pump,” she mentioned.

“Then you can do that in bed,” he replied. “Come on, drink your cocoa so your husband can carry you to bed,” he took a step towards her, standing right behind her chair so he could massage her shoulders as she raised the mug up to her lips.

“Can you grab me the nursing pad?” Fallon asked, pointing to the silicone pad on the edge of her desk.

“Here,” Liam offered her the small object, his hand returning to the knots she clearly had on her shoulder as he watched her cover her nipple with the pad before putting it back into the comfortable nursing bra she was wearing. “What happened to sleeping when the baby is asleep?”

“That’s great in theory,” she shrugged. “But in reality, I’m still a business woman and I have things to do,”

“We have an agreement, Fallon,” he reminded her. “For six months, your only job would be being a mom,”

“My  _main_ job is being a mom. I’m available for her 24/7 and you know that,” Fallon explained. “When I’m not busy with her, however, I can work,” she added, “because this company needs me,”

“I’m going down to the kitchen to put this in the fridge,” Liam informed, reaching for the baby bottle she had just closed while Fallon stood up from her chair. “When I get back up here, I want to see all the lights in this office off and I want to find you lying on our perfectly comfortable bed. Do we have a deal, Mrs. Ridley?” He asked, holding her face with his free hand as she kept pouting at him for making her go to bed.

“Forget it, Fal, those puppy eyes won’t work on me,” he chuckled. “Nor will that pout, no matter how adorable as it looks,”

His thumb was gently tracing soft and slow circles against the white skin of her cheek when he leaned closer to her. Fallon closed her eyes at the movement, waiting for his lips to meet hers when instead, Liam placed a quick kiss on her nose.

“Time for bed,” he murmured before placing another sweet and loving kiss on the tip of her nose.

“Fine,” she sighed heavily.

“Back to bed, come on,” Liam insisted, tapping her ass lightly a couple of times once she started walking. “Chop, chop!” He exclaimed playfully.

“I’m going!” Fallon rolled her eyes. “I’m going!”

“You better,” he replied, squeezing one of her ass cheeks purely for fun before turning off the lights as they finally stepped out of her office.


	13. thank you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy falliam kiss friday, ya filthy animals.

She types away vigorously at her iMac, trying to align all her numbers to where they were supposed to be; punching in random digits on her calculator to figure out all her end of month sales and percentages, trying to finalize the budget for Fallon Unlimited’s next quarter.

It was just….too much.

It was too much for one person to handle as a responsibility on their own, but she only had herself to blame truly, as she allowed no one else near these documents and made sure she was the only one who retained full control of them.

And when people accused her of being a control freak, the only thing she could do was nod, agree and say, “So?”

“Fallon, it’s 2am c’mon,” Liam speaks from a short distance behind her, shaking her from her focus. She hadn’t even heard him round the corner to her office, but there he was - standing in her doorway, clad in only his black boxers, a view she enjoyed very much. “You need to go to bed.”

“Not yet.” she hums aloud when she feels his hands press into her neck. He digs his fingers in to the tight knots she constantly had there, muscles tightening up involuntarily from the amount of time she spent hunched over a desk that week. “I need to finish this report and send it in by 3.”

“Fallon,” he says, with that warning tone of his; she’d become quite accustomed to that tone with her frequent late nights and early mornings as of late. He used that tone more and more the closer the end of the month drew near, knowing full-well that she’d drown herself in numbers and spreadsheets without little to no awareness of her surroundings. 

“I’m almost done,” she replies in a hurry. His hands still work their magic on her neck, her shoulders, her upper back, already loosening the tension between her shoulder blades. “I shouldn’t be that much longer. Go on to bed without me.”

His hands fall from the bare skin of her back. She spins around to find Liam eyeing her curiously with a flirtatious smile. “I’m not sure I believe you.”

“Twenty minutes, tops.” She reaches her hand out for him, and he accepts almost instantly; squeezing her tiny palm into his. He lifts her small hand up with his, pressing his lips against the back of her palm in a chaste kiss. “I promise.”

“Okay, but if it that clock hits two twenty and you’re not in bed,” he says, his finger pointing in her direction with narrow eyes; a warning. “I’m coming to get you.’

“That’s fair,” she agrees easily with a yawn, already exhausted from her full night with these spreadsheets. He steps back, leaving her to be with her work, but before he slips out of the doorway, she mutters a quiet, “Love you.”

“I love you, too.”

* * *

She awakens to the sun bleeding through her blinds, feeling more relaxed and fully rested than she had in….months, if she’s being honest with herself; which was hard for to admit that she’d been overworking herself and not taking care of her body in the amounts that she should have. Her eyes don’t feel like they immediately want to close again, her muscles feel calm and no longer as tense as they did the previous three days. It was…nice, she thinks, she felt _good._ She rises her arms above her head, stretching out that lingering sleep that was still working its way out of her system.

But then the final moments of her night start flashing before her eyes in a horrific sequence.

That months sales report.

Next months budget for Fallon Unlimited.

All those financial documents.

Unfinished.

 _Incomplete_.

She’d missed her deadline.

 _Fuck_ , she thinks with a groan, sinking as far into her white and fluffy pillows as she could.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” Liam rounds the corner of their master suite with a tray full of breakfast food in his hands; she can’t even see the food but she sure as hell can smell the bacon. She can’t even let herself be excited about the bacon when she thinks about all the chaos that will be ensuing at the office this week, thanks to her inability to finish her work on time. “I made you breakfast.”

“I don’t deserve it,” she sighs. “I missed my deadline and all my reports aren’t finished,” Fallon explains, turning to face him; his doe eyes look down on her with the sweetest of gazes, full of so much love and adoration.

“Well, that’s a bit dramatic.”

She pauses a minute when she sees him smirk a little and that’s when she realizes it. She never even went upstairs last night. How the _hell_ did she make it to bed?

“Wait, how did I even get to bed? I don’t remember coming upstairs.”

“You didn’t,” he says with simplicity, yet no explanation; as if it was obvious and didn’t need to be explained further.

“Okay, I’m confused.”

“I went downstairs to your office to get you around 2:30,” Liam begins.“You were passed out across the keyboard,” he smiles at her, sitting down beside her on their mattress. “So, I decided to carry you upstairs and tuck you into bed so you could get a full nights rest somewhere comfortable.” Liam’s hand comes up to tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear, pushing it out of her vision. “I thought you deserved that after you’ve worked so hard all week.”

“But my _reports_ , Liam,” she groans. “Why didn’t you wake me up to finish them?”

“Fallon,” he cuts her off before she can continue. He cups her face between both of his palms, leaving her no choice but to look at him and only him. “They’re all done. I finished them for you last night.”

“What?”

“I didn’t get to bed until about 4,” he explains, thumb rubbing gently against her face. “But you needed sleep more than I did. Your reports are all complete and submitted to their proper locations. Nothing for you to stress about today.”

“Since when do you know how to do all my financial reports, Liam?”

“That’s not really all that important now, is it?”

She slides up to him, her knees pressing into the mattress when she sits up, pushing her lips against his in a gentle kiss as she moves her own hand to cup one of his cheeks. It’s slow and gentle, tired and sleepy, the remnants of her nights rest still lingering throughout her body, her senses coming alive with the way their mouths moved against one another. His lips are still dry from his own nights sleep, and they taste like her favorite brand of bacon - that salty taste finding its way to her own taste buds as their tongues dance slowly in the middle.

She can still feel his breath against her lips when she pulls away, keeping their faces close in proximity to each other as they let the moment wash over them like a way. He falls back against the headboard, pulling her with him as she lets herself curl into him, resting her head against his bare chest.

“Thank you for doing that,” she lets out an easy sigh when she pulls back. The relief sinks in quickly, the fact that she didn’t have to stress about those spreadsheets and numbers for another thirty days. Her eyes open slowly, finding his in the middle with his face only inches from hers. “But you totally ate a piece of my bacon, didn’t you?


	14. comforting kiss

“You feeling any better?” Liam looked up from the book he was currently lost in when Fallon finally stepped out of the closet. Her hair was up in a messy bun as she wasn’t in the mood to wash it that night and she wore her warmest and most comfortable set of pajamas. “You’ve been in there for a while,”

As Fallon walked further into the bedroom, she noticed Liam had lit up the fireplace and turned off all of the lights except for the yellow lamp they each had on their nightstands by the bed. The long shower had helped but the dimly lit room and the cozy atmosphere provided by the fire was extremely satisfying.

Liam had already changed into his own winter pajamas and was sitting on the large armchair by the fireplace with a dark fleece blanket on his lap. His hair was terribly disheveled since he hadn’t even bothered to brush it after showering, choosing to dry it with the towel and then leave it be.

“I just want the pain to stop, Liam,” Fallon groaned in complaint.

“Come here,” Liam extended his arm, offering her a hand as she approached him. “I came up from the kitchen only five minutes ago and I brought you some chamomile tea and a heating pad,” he spoke while nodding to the two objects sitting on the glass coffee table right in front of the couch.

“Thank you, babe,” she offered him a smile as she raised the mug up to her lips to take a sip of the tea.

“No, wait,” he tightened the grip on her hand before she could take a seat next to him.

Closing his book, Liam placed the hardcover piece on the coffee table and reached for the heating pad. Once he was returned to his position on the couch, he turned around slightly so his back was leaning against the corner between the back of the couch and one of its arms.

“Here,” Liam added, using his free hand to lift the warm blanket for her. “Come on,” he insisted while patting his legs.

“What did I even do to deserve this?” Fallon couldn’t help but ask as she sat down on his lap, letting her back fall against the arm of the couch when Liam wrapped one arm around her frame.

“When I asked you about how painful those cramps were, you said you felt like there was a chainsaw cutting through your uterus,” he chuckled softly.

“Well, it’s probably a small knife now,” she replied, leaning her forehead against his as she snuggled closer to his chest.

“I can see in your eyes that it’s still pretty bad, Fal,” Liam mentioned. “Excuse me,” his voice was low, his tone gentle as he delicately placed the heating pad against her uterus, settling it between her pants and cotton panties. “Bend your knees and move closer to me so it will stay still,” he instructed.

Fallon quickly did as she was told, raising both of her legs and keeping her knees as close as possible to her chest.

“You’re probably wondering why I still feel like shit when my period comes,” Fallon murmured. “It’s been like fourteen years since I got my first period and somehow I’m still not used to these damn cramps,” she groaned.

“It’s okay, babe,”

Leaning forward, Liam placed a long kiss on her forehead, making sure his lips was pressed to her soft skin for about a minute, hopeful that it would help her focus less on the pain currently taking over her body. She could only close her eyes when his hand moved under her shirt and a smile quickly appeared on her lips when she felt the tips of his fingers tracing small circles against her belly.

“I may not know what it feels like but I understand how bad it must be,” he told her. “Do you want a massage or something?” He asked.

“No, this is good,” she took a long sip of her tea, enjoying the feeling of the hot liquid running down her throat while his finger brought her the kind of comfort not even the hot water from the shower spray could bring her when falling directly against her skin.

“You know what helped you last month?” Liam offered her a devious smirk.

“Liam, I can barely walk,” Fallon shook her head in disbelief at what he was insinuating. “What makes you think I can have _sex_ in this current state?” She gestured to her body.

“It _has_ been proven that sex relieves period cramps, Fal. In fact, you proved that theory yourself last month when you finally relaxed once you had that breathtaking orgasm,” he reminded her. “Maybe you could use some of that endorphin to help with the pain,”

“Did you forget the _mess_ we made that night, Liam?” Fallon threw him a serious look. “Our mattress looked like a crime scene,”

“Yeah,” Liam let out a heavy sigh. “You randomly picked one of the guest rooms, fell asleep in a matter of minutes before even getting under the blankets and I was left all by myself. All cold and alone down in the laundry room, washing those damn sheets all night long,”

“I’m comfortable here,” leaning closer to the coffee table, she set the mug down on the glass before turning back towards her husband. “Thank you for being so sweet and for taking care of me,” she spoke softly. “Even though you suffered quite a lot with my PMS this past week,”

“It’s okay, Fal,” he cupped her cheek gently, staring deeply into her bright blue eyes as he leaned forward. “I will keep in mind to buy three boxes of chocolate instead of only two next month,” he chuckled lightly before capturing her lips with his.

The kiss started slow, barely a peck on the lips before Fallon granted him entrance, allowing his tongue to join hers as their lips searched for the perfect pace. A painful moan escaped her lungs when another wave of terrible pain ran through her body but Liam only held onto her tighter, waiting for her to finally relax as he peppered kisses up and down her jaw.

“Don’t let the pain win, babe,” Liam murmured against her lips. “Focus on me,” he requested, placing his palm over the heating pad so he could press it harder against her skin. “Come here,” he whispered before crashing his lips on hers.

Fallon’s hand flew to the back of his head as soon as he deepened the kiss, playing to the short strands of hair that were already getting too long, begging for a trim. For a couple of minutes, she focused on nothing but his lips, enjoying as they moved against hers in a gentle pace.

Their bodies closed together, their tongues tangled around each other and the warmth of his hand all over her stomach was everything she needed to forget about the excruciating pain inside her body. Even on her worst days, Liam still managed to comfort her in the best possible way - by being there for her and by being exactly who she needed at such a vulnerable moment.

For someone that had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Fallon had never really wondered what it would feel to win the lottery. However, it was at nights like that one that she knew she had gotten the winning ticket. As she felt the coldness of his wedding band roaming up and down her belly, she knew, with absolute certainty, that she didn’t really need much as long as she had him by her side.


	15. kiss away my tears

**12:02pm  
** _Where are you?_

**12:56pm  
** _Liam, please pick up._

Six missed calls from Fallon.

**1:19pm  
** _Please come home._

**1:40pm  
** _Liam? Is your meeting done yet?_

**2:42pm  
** _Please Liam. I need you._

**3:47pm  
** _Please._

The stream of notifications pop up on the glass screen instantly, his dead iPhone finally catching a charge when he plugs the device into the center console of his black Acura. A sinking feeling settles in his gut the moment he reads through every missed call and every missed text, the short duration between each and every time she reached out leading him to the worst of all conclusions. The panic begins filling him all at once, a warmth filling through his body with dread at all the possible outcomes that are currently running through his mind at warp speed, hating himself for even allowing his phone to get to such an empty charge that he’d clearly missed something important.

He’d been stuck in a meeting with his New York City based team from HarperCollins all afternoon, discussing the trajectory for his next novel and all the due dates for his drafts. It’d run extremely late, the momentum and excitement for his book much bigger than he’d expected it to be, but now?

Now he wishes he didn’t let himself become so invested in the conversation.

Now, his new book wasn’t even a vital concern for him.

Now, his focus was only on Fallon and making sure she was okay.

He couldn’t even remember what they had discussed over the last three hours in that conference room anymore, not with Fallon’s multiple texts and calls haunting him as he looked at his lock screen once more, unable to take his eyes away from her pleading words. Seeing her name _that_ many times gave him an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach; the thought of her suffering without him there to hold her hand and tell her everything was going to be okay…

Something _bad_ must have happened for her to reach out so many times, to reach out so consistently, with each text being within minutes of each other. He hates all the dark places his mind starts to wander as he starts trying to piece together what could have happened during the short few hours he was away.

He immediately dials that number he knows like the back of his hand, waiting in pure agony for her to pick up as he listens to that monotone beep once, twice, three times, only for her voicemail to pick up the call in the end, the familiar voice box message filling his ears and only furthering the dread inside him when she doesn’t pick up the call.

Liam can only throws his phone down on the passengers seat, paying little to no attention as to where it falls in his vehicle. He revs up the engine quickly, pulling himself out of the parking garage, and taking that familiar left turn to begin his journey back to Carrington Manor.

* * *

He opens the wooden door at Carrington Manor with urgency when he finally finds his feet back at the place they call home, searching for any sign from the life that wandered around downstairs that could lead him to an answer of what had happened. But, he comes up short, finding no other soul in the downstairs foyer to question about what could have possibly happened before he rushes himself up the grand staircase, his feet needing no guidance as he walks the familiar path towards their bedroom.

He makes it to the front of their room, the white door closed tightly before him. He’s unsure of what his eyes might find when he finally makes it inside their safe haven, so he opens the door slowly, cautiously. And when he finally does a full sweep of the room with his blue eyes, he’s surprised to find the room completely still with no signs of Fallon.

There’s clothes scattered on the floor, along with the pair of heels she’d chosen to wear to work earlier that morning. The bed is completely disheveled, so unlike her normal behavior to leave the sheets in a crumpled mess, which only furthers his worries. There’s two boxes of tissues on her side of the bed, one of them already emptied out entirely; a clump of used up tissues scattered along her side of the bed.

“Fal?”

Silence echoes back at him, the only sound he finally allows himself to hone in on is the sound of the shower spitting out water in an array of splatters. _Fallon,_ he thinks, immediately letting his feet lead him to her. He turns the corner to the en-suite, his heart cracking into a million little shards as his eyes adjust and fully take in what he’s seeing in front of him.

_Fallon_.

Fallon wearing absolutely _nothing_ but the bare of her skin, her tiny body sitting on the hard tiled floor; curled up into herself as her body shakes uncontrollably beneath the water falling down around her like rain. The sound of her muffled tears nearly break him, her soft gasps for air mostly silent over the strong current of water splattering around her, but he knows her too well for her to fool him.

“Fallon,” he breaths out, sadness looming over him as he watches his love fall to pieces in front of him.

She catches his voice, spinning around just slightly so her face catches his eyes. Her eyes are red and irritated, puffy and filled with tears, a fully harrowing glare growing in the center of her eyes.

It nearly breaks him once more.

“Liam,” she breaths his name out in barely a whisper, almost inaudible against the sound of the droplets falling against the tile. Her left hand blindly reaches out blindly for him, small little raindrops falling in random patterns against her skin, her shaky hand holding out for him.

The only thing he can do is strip down to nothing, meeting her under the scalding hot water and pull her into his waiting arms. She clings to him immediately, her head falling into the crevice of his neck as the hot water falls around them. He tightens his grip on her, letting her pull all the strength from him that she needs, all the strength she might have lost.

“It’s okay, Fal,” he breathes for her ears only. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

She only shakes in his arms, sobs escaping her tired body at random intervals as she struggles to catch her breath. She grips at his chest, holding on to his shoulder in a desperate attempt to keep him close - her actions tearing at his heart in ways he didn’t think were even imaginable. The warmth of the water sinks beneath his skin, even though the sight of her makes him feel so very cold.

“I love you, okay?” His head falls against the dampness of her hair, tightening his arms around her even further, if that was possible. “Whatever it is, I love you and I’m here for you, okay?”

She pulls away after sometime, her blotchy eyes still red and full of irritation. She finds his eyes and he cups his cheek with his palm, keeping her close to his body. He searches those blue eyes he loves so much for an answer, but they’re empty, and that emptiness terrifies him as he’s never seen her stare back at him with a blank gaze before.

The next words out of her mouth are shaky and hoarse, the two syllables clicking everything into place at full force.

“Bo died.”

Bo.

The dog she’d had since she was a kid, the dog who’d been by her side for the last fourteen years. He can’t fathom what she’s feeling right now. He’s suddenly back to when he was a teenager when his dad accidentally shot his dog Layla, that feeling of impending doom that layered inside of him, the sinking realization that the dog he was such good friends with wasn’t going to be there for him anymore.

“Fal,” he says with a barely audible tone.

Her eyes fall again, tears threatening her body once more as a second round of sadness escapes her. She curls into herself, attempting to sink her body back into his toned arms, but he pulls her face up instead to meet him. He peppers small kisses all over her face, his lips kissing away each individual tear that escaped her crystal blue eyes before they had a chance to fall down her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry,” he says, pressing a kiss to her temple. “I’m here for you, okay? Whatever you need. I’m here.”

She nods weakly, falling back into the safety of his arms. He holds her close, rubbing small patterns against any part of her skin he could reach, whispering reassuring words over and over in her ears as the water from above does its best to wash away the pain.

A clean start.


	16. at the top of a ferris wheel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the sake of this story, let's pretend Coney Island already existed back when Liam was a young boy...

“Ouch!” The five year old exclaimed when she hit another trashcan. She had insisted on carrying the four feet tall light brown bear Liam had won for her at the Ring Toss game, but the stuffed animal was so big she kept hitting everything in front of her since she couldn’t exactly see where she was going.

“That’s three,” Fallon couldn’t help but chuckle when Liam placed his head on the top of their daughter’s head and guided her to the right path, away from the large trashcan.

“Daddy, would you please carry my bear?” Charlotte finally asked, stopping on her tracks to stare up at him. “I’m tired of hitting trash cans,”

“Mommy is carrying her own prize. Why can’t you carry yours?” Liam questioned, teasing the little girl as he gestured to the ten inches tall monkey Fallon was hugging against her chest.

“Can we trade, mommy?” She begged, throwing her mother her famous puppy eyes as she tried to convince them to carry the huge stuffed animal.

“That’s too heavy for mommy, princess,” he mentioned. “She’s already carrying your sister so we have to carry all the heavy stuff for her, remember?”

“You said my sister was the size of a grapefruit last week,” Charlotte frowned before pointing to Fallon’s twenty four week pregnant bump. “A grapefruit is not heavy,” she murmured, throwing them a confused look.

“I will carry your bear for you if you take back your backpack, Miss Ridley,” Liam proposed, gesturing to the pink glitter backpack he had been caring around Coney Island for the past two hours.

“But that’s heavy...” She complained dramatically.

“And why is it heavy?”

“Because I hid your professional camera in it before we left the hotel,” Charlotte admitted, staring down at her silver Vans as the muttered words left her lips.

“And how many photos have you taken so far?” He asked.

“Zero?” She replied, moving her body from one side to the other in embarrassment as she glanced between her parents. “I guess I will just keep Mister Bear then,”

Turning around to resume their walk towards the Ferris wheel, Charlotte didn’t notice disheveled floor of the boardwalk and tripped. The large stuffed bear fell directly on the floor and the five year old ended up right above it, her arms still tightly wrapped around his neck and her face buried against the back of his fluffy head.

“Help!” She begged, shaking her legs as she tried to find the floor with her feet only to realize she probably wouldn’t be able to get back up by herself.

“Liam, you spend hours at the gym and for what?” Fallon groaned before bending down to reach for her daughter. “If you can lift those heavy powerlifting plates, you can handle a bear and a backpack,” she mentioned while crouching down in front of Charlotte. “You okay, princess?” She asked, rubbing her thumb against her pink cheek.

“I am. Although I might need some ice cream for my pride, mommy,” Charlotte told her mother. “Because daddy made me fall on the floor in public and completely humiliate myself,”

“Hey!” Liam exclaimed playfully. “I’m the one carrying a pink glitter backpack around this amusement park!”

“Don’t push it,” The brunette whispered as she stood back up. “Daddy will carry your bear and I will carry your backpack, okay?” She nodded. “Just please watch your step, princess. We don’t want you injuring yourself before we get to that Ferris wheel,”

“I will, mommy!” She replied, jumping in excitement as they started heading towards the entrance to one of the most popular attractions at Luna Park.

* * *

“Daddy, what is the story behind this Ferris wheel?” Charlotte asked once the blue cabin started going up the wheel. “You said this place is very important to you,”

“This park is over an hour away by subway from where I used to live back when I was younger, princess,” Liam began. “I believe I was twelve years old when I came here for the first time. School was already very stressful, even at that age, and my mother was very strict with my studying,” he explained. “She was never home, always busy at the company, but she still managed to boss me around... one day, she asked our driver to take her to a meeting down at the Financial District and she forgot to send the limo back to me,”

“Grandma Laura forgot you at school?” Her eyes widened in shock.

“She did,” he could only nod. “She asked Miles to wait for her so he could drive her back to the office and she didn’t even realize there was something missing,” he shrugged.

“That was very rude of her,” the five year old commented.

“I knew the way back home. It was only a few blocks anyway so I decided to just walk home,”

“Which is something daddy shouldn’t have done, princess,” Fallon spoke up when she realized what he was just about to tell their daughter. “Because kids that age aren’t supposed to leave school on their own, especially not in a big city like New York. There are a lot of mean people out there and they can do a lot of bad things to you if you’re wandering around town without an adult present,”

“Your mom is right, baby girl,” Liam nodded. “I flee the school premises and started walking home but that’s something you should never, ever do, alright?” He asked, looking deeply into her ocean blue eyes.

“ _Walk_ home, daddy?” Charlotte frowned. “Why I would I _walk_ home when we have like ten cars in the garage?” She questioned.

“That’s not the point here, Charlie,” Liam tried, shaking his head at her snarky comment as Fallon tried hard not to laugh at it.

“Princess, daddy is just saying that if anything ever happens and for some reason neither of us can pick you up at school, you have to wait there until we can get someone we trust to take you home,” Fallon explained. “Like Uncle Sam, grandma Alexis...” She told her.

“What would be more important than me?” She asked them, a devastated pout on her lips.

“Nothing is more important than you, Charlie,” Fallon chuckled, pulling the five year old to sit on her legs as they approached the top of the Ferris wheel. “Ugh, I hate when it stops this high,” she complained, resting her head against Liam’s shoulder to avoid looking through the glass windows of the small cabin.

“I can protect you, mommy,” Charlotte spoke softly, throwing her arms around her mother’s neck while leaning her head against hers, both of them falling on Liam and the large bear sitting on his legs.

“Thank you, baby,” she smiled before placing a kiss on her cheek. “Maybe we should let daddy continue his story?”

“Okay,” she nodded. “Please continue, daddy,”

“I was walking home when I saw this sign about a fun park. It obviously wasn’t like this place is right now but it still looked entertaining enough,” Liam told them. “All I had to do was take the subway to Brooklyn and eventually I would end up here, at Brighton Beach. I figured no one would even notice so I just came here for the afternoon,”

“But this place is so far from Manhattan, daddy!” The five year old exclaimed. “That car drive took _forever_ ,”

“I just wanted to spend one day as far as possible from all that annoying Upper East Side vibe, princess,” he replied with a shrug.

“What’s an Upper East Side vibe, dad?”

“That vibe we feel whenever we’re at your grandma’s penthouse, Charlie,”

“Oh,” she murmured. “You’re right. That’s annoying,” she chuckled.

“This place gave me a peace of mind that I wasn’t even aware it existed. I did all of my homework while eating corndogs, I rode this Ferris wheel and the roller coaster more times than I can even remember but it felt good, you know?” Liam continued, offering Fallon a smirk when he noticed the brightest and most loving smile on her lips.

“This is very soothing, I agree,” Charlotte mentioned while placing both hands on the window to stare at the beach and the city below them once the Ferris wheel started moving again. “We can see the city, which means we’re not in the middle of nowhere...” She paused, eliciting giggles and eye-rolls from her parents at her words. “We can also see the beach but we don’t get sand in our shoes! How incredible is that? I like it, yeah,” she nodded, mostly talking to herself as she looked through the dirty window.

“It sort of became a regular thing... I don’t think my parents ever found out but I used to come here every month,” he mentioned, his voice fading at the memory.

A memory that he wasn’t even sure was a happy or a sad one. All he knew was that it had stayed with him somehow, through all those years, bringing him the peacefulness he had mentioned even though he hadn’t been to that small amusement park in over a decade and he could tell his wife had just picked up on all that. Perhaps by the way he was telling the story or maybe even by the sad look in his eyes but before he realized, she was pulling him closer to him, capturing his lips in hers for a passionate kiss.

Fallon knew exactly what it felt like to need to escape reality. Liam would take the subway to Coney Island once a month for the same reason she would walk around the houses near the Manor, staring through the windows and wishing her family looked anything like the ones she would see inside those houses. As sad as it was, they had both found a way to escape, holding onto one last straw so they wouldn’t get sucked in by the black hole of drama and stress caused by their families.

Charlotte was so calm, staring out of the window and murmuring things to herself, that they allowed themselves to get lost in each other for a brief moment. Their fingers intertwined around each other’s and their hands sitting on her legs as their lips moved in the sweetest rhythm. A kiss that wasn’t supposed to be anything other than a reassurance that they would always be there for each other, that they wouldn’t ever need another escape like that because they had finally gotten the life they had always dreamed of. The only thing left to wish for, was that their daughters never felt like they had once felt.

With their eyes closed, they made each other that promised without having to speak a single word. They didn’t have to talk to know what was going through each other’s mind at that very moment. They were so absorbed by their love exchange they didn’t even notice the small and delicate feature about two inches away from their faces.

“What are you doing?” Charlotte asked, forcing them to break the kiss at her sudden tone of discontent.

“Kissing?” Liam frowned in response, a bit intimidated as her bright blue eyes stared fiercely at their matching ones.

“I _know_ that,” the five year old rolled her eyes, “but stop, please, it’s very ew,” she requested. “You’re not even enjoying the ride,” she shrugged.

“Of course I’m enjoying the ride,” he told her. “I used to come here all by myself and now I get to bring you two here with me,” he offered them a smile. “Hopefully, soon I will be able to bring my _three_ girls here to enjoy this special place with me,” he mentioned, settling one hand on Fallon’s barely noticeable baby bump.

“What did you even do here all by yourself, daddy?” Charlotte asked. “Weren’t you bored? That you had no one to talk to?” She added. “I know I would go _crazy_ if I were here alone,”

“You like that daddy and I are here with you, princess?” Fallon threw one arm around her daughter, pulling her daughter close to her before giving her a loud smack on the cheek.

“Yes! Where else would you be?” She frowned and that’s when they _knew_ they had done something right.

That was the moment they were sure Charlotte didn’t need a escape like they had needed during their childhoods. That Charlotte knew they would be there for her whenever she needed them to be. As Liam pulled both of them closer to him, peppering kisses all over their faces, he knew that place, but more specifically, the top of that Ferris wheel, had just gotten a whole other meaning, turning his bittersweet memory into one that he wish he would never forget.


	17. top of the head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back to Falliam Kiss Friday's. 
> 
> Yeah, we skipped a week. We're sorry. It's mostly my fault, as I had been loaded with work and school and couldn't find the time, or inspiration quite frankly, to sit down and write anything. But, we're back now, I think. 
> 
> Anyways, enjoy.

The vicious current rip at his skin, choppy waves crashing over his body with an aggressive force. 

The cold water sinks beneath his skin, chilling him to the bone as swims further and further into the deep end, desperately searching for the shoreline that disappeared right out from under him. The sea that encircles him is endless, stretching out for miles and miles, the water piercing and murky. His feet hang below the surface, the deep depths refusing his body any minute of rest as he searches endlessly for the shallows. The thick fog that settles around him becomes more and more dense with each passing second, dark grey clouds looming above him and making the visibility nearly impossible for him to determine which direction he should swim.

His tired body wants to give out, wants to call it quits and give into his impending, inevitable doom when he notices a floating object just ahead of him in the direction he’s been swimming in for what feels like days. He pushes through with any strength he can find within him, mustering up all the adrenaline he can find inside himself to swim that extra distance. 

He shivers internally, the icy cold temperature digging deep into his bones as the sky starts spitting out little droplets of rain. They hit against his skin, dancing against the waters around him as the bounce off the surface. The chilling low temperature of the ocean distracts him from his target for a brief moment as the showers fall down around him, but he finds the courage to keep moving, swimming easily towards the bobbing target that lays just ahead. 

But when he gets closer, the object only moves further and further away from him, suddenly and completely out of reach. 

“Liam,” he hears from the distance, spinning his body ‘round and ‘round and ‘round while he searches for the source of the soft echo. The object still dances in front of him, when he hears the voice again. “Liam.”

“Fallon,” he gurgles the word out as the salty water fights its way into his mouth, finding its way into his lungs. 

It’s Fallon, he thinks. 

He knows. 

He would recognize that voice anywhere, anytime. 

The object teasing him and seemingly moving further and further from his location is Fallon trying to find her way to him, to save him and finally bring him to safety. She’d been out here, too, in these vicious cold and chilling waters, trying to find him to rescue him. She’d known he needed help, seen him fighting these violent waves and swam out here to bring him to shore with her.

“Liam,” he hears again, but this time that calming voice is closer than it was the last time. “Liam, wake up.”

And then suddenly he’s back exactly where he remembers falling asleep.

He finds himself in a cold sweat, looking up to find Fallon’s tired and worried eyes staring down at him with fear and concern lingering inside the usually bright and visible blue. She cups her hand against his face, rubbing her thumb against the stubble against his cheek in a reassuring pattern. He focuses on her touch, the way her touch alone can bring him a sense of calm he’d never been able to know before. 

Not until he met her. 

“Are you okay?”

He can only look at her shell-shocked, frozen in his place as he pulls himself out of that haunting headspace, letting his mind come back down from that high and let himself fully immerse himself back into reality. His chest rises and falls, the thumping in his chest rapid and intense as he fights to catch a full breathe of air when he breathes in. 

“It was just a nightmare, Liam,” she hums softly into the darkness, the only light coming from the small nightlight she kept at the opposite end of their room. “A bad dream.”

She pulls him into her chest, his head nestling into the crevice of her neck with relative ease. Her fingers find themselves tangling in his short strands, the soothing feeling of her pulling him further into her arms already settling his racing heart. He feels her breath tickle against the short strands of his blonde hair, before he feels her lips press against the top of his head in a comforting kiss.

The feel of her lips puckering against the top of his hair, her breath whispering against his dirty blonde strands eases him into serenity. She rests her cheek against his head after, holding him closer to her and wrapping her arms around his frame as best she can. He turns into her, finding solace in the way her heart beats at a normal pace inside her chest. 

He breathes out.


	18. pizza night

“Hey! You started without me?” Fallon asked when she walked into the kitchen and noticed all of the ingredients were already on the counter.

“I was actually just about to go up to check on you,” Liam informed, closing the fridge once he finally found the parmesan cheese he was looking for. “How was your bath?”

Taking a couple of steps towards her, he set the plastic bowl on the counter before leaning in for a kiss. The smell of tranquil chamomile filled his nostrils as soon as he approached her and he didn’t need much to know how relaxing and refreshing the aromatherapy mineral bath he had prepared her had been.

As their lips moved against one another, their hands found their way to each other’s hips and in a matter of seconds, they reached the perfect rhythm. She couldn’t help but let out a soft moan when their tongues started moving together, finding a different kind of peacefulness in that kiss than not even the most amazing bath could provide.

“Amazing,” she replied once they broke the kiss. “Although I must admit it would have been perfect if you had joined me,”

“That was supposed to be a relaxing bath, babe,” he countered. “Warm, scented water for you to do nothing but relax in. You’ve had a stressful week and you were in desperate need of a break,”

“Yeah, you’re right,” she murmured. “As always,” she added with a shrug and he couldn’t help but laugh. “I shouldn’t be allowed to be alone with my own thoughts for too long though,”

“You could have taken a nap,”

“I can’t nap in the tub,” Fallon responded. “I usually enjoy reading one of your latest stories but you forbid me of doing anything that would involve using my brain,” she complained.

“That’s only because I knew you could use some time off,” he told her, raising one hand up to her face to push a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear. “You’ve barely slept this week and all those meetings with your new head of marketing are draining all of your energy,”

“I know, babe, I know,” she offered him a smile before snuggling against his chest, allowing him to wrap his arms around her smaller frame and pull her even closer to him. “You really are the best husband,” she mumbled, placing a soft kiss on the front of her shoulder, using the height difference from her lack of heels in her favor. “You’re even making me pizza,”

“We’re making pizza _together_ ,” Liam corrected her, tickling her sides playfully and eliciting a loud laugh from her. “You’re lucky your husband has already prepared both the dough and the tomato sauce,”

“Like I said,” Fallon paused. “You really are the best husband,”

“I’m starting to wonder if I spoil you way too much,” he groaned.

“I like when you spoil me,” she threw him a wink before leaving his embrace to focus on the ingredients he had separated while she enjoyed her bath.

“We should be able to make three pizzas with these,” Liam started, reaching for the bowl in which he had placed the three balls of dough inside, each one wrapped carefully in plastic wrap.

“Do you have any toppings in mind?” Fallon asked as she opened the package of pepperoni, stealing two round slices then throwing it inside her mouth.

“You’re eating one of them,” he couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m just making sure they’re good enough for the pizza,” she shrugged.

“Of course you are,” Liam sighed, rolling his eyes. “Would you like to stretch the dough?” He suggested.

“I don’t know what that means,” Fallon admitted in a murmur.

“First of all,” he began. “We’re going to throw some flour on the counter so the dough doesn’t stick to the marble surface,” he instructed while carefully throwing some of the white powder from the glass recipient onto the counter. “Then, you’re going to take one of these,” he grabbed one rounded and proofed pizza dough from the bowl and quickly removed the plastic wrap around it, “and you’re going to flatten it into a disc using the palm of your hand,”

“My _hand_? Why can’t I just use a rolling pin?” She questioned, an annoying tone in her voice.

“You have to let the dough stretch naturally, babe,” Liam informed. “When you use a rolling pin to flatten it, you push out all the gas and you end up with a condensed, tough texture, which tastes horrible,” he explained.

“Yeah, I most certainly was _not_ born to do this,” Fallon complained.

“Come on,” he spoke, standing behind her as he let his hands guide hers through the process of stretching dough. “We agreed we would give our staff at least two days off every week,” he reminded her, “which means that we’ll be cooking dinner at least twice a week,” he mentioned, his palms flat on the back of her hand as they flattened the dough against the counter.

“It’s not my fault you’re passionate about cooking,” she shrugged.

“Well, I do love when you help me in the kitchen,” Liam admitted, placing a delicate and loving kiss on her shoulder.

“I can’t really say I _love_ that but I do enjoy helping you once in a while,” she could only chuckle as she leaned back against him, resting her head on his chest when he continued to pepper kisses on her silk covered shoulder.

“What would you do if I wasn’t here?” He questioned. “What if I was away on a business trip?”

“I would probably order something,” Fallon mumbled in response as they stretched the still thick dough, his body trapping her smaller one between himself and the counter and his hands sitting gently on top of hers.

“You know that’s not healthy,” he replied shortly before letting go of her to walk around the counter.

“Hey! Where are you going?” She frowned, clearly upset at the lack of touching when the warm body behind her suddenly disappeared.

“You’ve learned how to do it,” Liam glanced at her hands. “I’m sure you’re smart enough to do the other two by yourself, right?”

“No, not without your arms around me,” Fallon pouted, shaking her head. “You’re no fun,” she added, the words leaving her lips in nothing but a murmur when he completely ignored her to focus on the tomato sauce in the black pan.

“I seriously need to encourage you to get your hands dirty more often,” he mentioned. “See how nice it is to make dinner with your husband?”

“It’s okay,” she shrugged.

“I will take that as a compliment,”

“ _Now_ it’s fun,” it was all Fallon spoke before throwing a handful of flour in his direction, the white powder covering his body from his chest up.

“Fallon!” Liam screamed, coughing a couple of times to get rid of the flour that had made its way into his mouth.

“What?” She questioned playfully. “You wanted this to be a fun experience,” she told him. “Since you rejected my idea of doing it on the counter instead… I had to get creative,” she explained, throwing more flour at him when he began to round the counter to get to her. “Oh, you’re not going to catch me! You’re dirty and I _just_ took a bath!” She screamed as she ran away from him, each one at an opposite side of the counter.

“I might not catch you,” he began, teasingly, “but I can still do this!”

Before Fallon could even process what was happening in front of her, Liam reached for the large spoon that was currently sitting unbothered in the pan of sauce. As she opened her mouth to protest, the words died on her tongue once she realized he was raising the spoon way higher than he should for someone who was supposed to be _stirring_ sauce.

That whole moment took no longer than five seconds and she could only close her eyes when he threw the tomato sauce at her, splashing the room temperature liquid all over her chest and face.

“Oh you did _not_ just do that!” Fallon raged, her loud voice echoing around the wide kitchen.

“I guess I did,” Liam couldn’t resist laughing at his wife’s current state, face covered in tomato sauce as she tried to clean what had ended up on her hair.

“Damn, this tastes good,” she whispered, running her tongue quickly over her top lip.

“What did you just say?” He asked.

“Nothing,” Fallon shrugged. “I hope you’re aware that you’re going to have to run me _another_ bath now,” she threw him a glare. “Even better, you’re going to wash my hair since you got this stupid sauce all over it,” she informed. “And I better not feel any wandering hands while you’re at it!”

“You were not supposed to be this tense after such a relaxing bath,” Liam commented while approaching her.

“I’m not even going to bother answering that,” she groaned.

“If you think about it, now I can join you…” He mentioned, his voice soft in hear ear as he threw his arms around her waist to pull her closer to him.

“Now I don’t want you to anymore,” Fallon pouted.

“Have I ever told you how adorable you look when you _pretend_ you’re mad?” Liam teased, tickling her sides.

“I _am_ mad,” she rolled her eyes in frustration, grabbing another handful of flour before throwing it at his direction. “I don’t want to even _look_ at you right now,”

“Oh so you don’t want me to clean you anymore?” He asked, letting his tongue move across her cheek as he licked the sauce off her skin.

“I could be persuaded…” Fallon moaned when he sucked on that sensitive spot right below her earlobe.

“What do you think of the sauce?” Liam asked. “Is it to your liking or should I add anything else to it?” He added, his blue eyes staring deeply into her own as his hands slid under her pajama top.

“Why don’t you taste it again? Just to be sure?”

“I could,” he replied shortly, picking up her hint when she threw him a devious smirk.

“Come here,” she murmured, her hand flying to the back of his neck as she crashed her lips against his.

Liam could taste the remaining drops of his traditional tomato sauce on her lips, the spicy flavor tingling their tongues while they battled for dominance. It didn’t take long for him to taste the barely noticeable hint of sweetness in the sauce and he couldn’t resist deepening the kiss.

Her hand slid upwards, her fingers getting lost in his hair as she pulled on his short strands. They were moving in the perfect rhythm, enjoying the feeling of each other’s lips against their own, when he pulled back briefly.

Fallon could only smile when he threw her a smirk, his pupils dilated as his eyes screamed in both love and desire. Pushing her against the counter, Liam crashed his lips against hers once more but instead of engaging in another kiss, he chose to focus on her bottom lip. The mix of tomato and flour turning the kissing experience into an interesting one as they shared the distinct flavors of the ingredients.

“Liam,” Fallon moaned, throwing her head back and gripping even tighter on his hair when he sucked _hard_ on her already swollen lip. “Take me to the bathtub,” she whispered, finding it impossible to even think coherently when his hands kept traveling up beneath her top.

“What about the pizza?” Liam questioned.

“We can finish them later,” she replied. Winking at him, she jumped off the floor and wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. “I’m actually craving something else right now,”

“Your wish is my command, Mrs. Ridley,”


	19. a kiss to exorcise my mind

Her insecurities are like demons running around in her head; and it’s always the dead of night which lures them out, like the darkness feeds their starving forms and their pointed claws pierce her skin, painfully and relentlessly.

They keep her awake, most nights she prays for absolution as they hijack her thoughts, force terrifying scenarios into her mind, and she spirals deeper and deeper until eventually, she feels like she’s in the devil’s clutches with no way to break free.

The exhaustion is just beginning to show, comments have been made by multiple people now for the past few days, it’s getting harder and harder to cover up the dark circles under her eyes and her usually sharp mind is constantly sluggish. It’s playing hell on her business sense to the point of taking involuntary naps at her desk, waking only when her phone shrills to life and violently pulls her back into reality.

And even if she does manage to drift into unconsciousness, it’s only for a few blissful moments until the demons make a starring role in her dreams, and she’s forced to relive the same nightmare, over, and over again. It always ends in the same way, with her whole world being torn away from her and she’s left completely and utterly alone.

The worst thing about it is that there’s no reason for this to be happening, there were no obvious triggers – things were fine, things were _great_ , even. It frustrates her that she can’t just bask in her happiness and enjoy the present as it is because of this ever-constant nagging, a voice whispering in her ear every time she laughs, or smiles or feels any sense of happiness, it leans down and taunts, “This won’t last.”

And the reason it impacts her so much is that it never has lasted.

Every time she gets close and builds and builds so that she has the life that she wants there’s always something or someone just around the corner, ready to pull the rug from under her and everything always comes toppling down.

And of course, she could stand to lose sometimes. She’s resilient, she understands. There’s going to be times she’ll lose a contract or maybe even a whole business, she can deal with that. She always springs back.

But him, losing _him_ , that was something else.

She almost didn’t make it the last time fate tried to tear them apart. It left a jarring scar on her heart having to expose her feelings to someone who saw her as a stranger and then walk away from him. There’s no way she would be able to handle heartbreak like that again and these damn nightmares are making sure she knows that.

But they’re just that – thoughts. Constellations in her mind that are completely intangible and she knows that they’re illogical and somewhat irrational so surely paying them any attention, admitting that they’re haunting her dreams will only give the demons more credence. Or worse, she’ll act on them and that will only lead her straight into some form of self-sabotage; something she is all too familiar with. So with that theory set firmly in place, she does what she does best; she pushes them away and finds a solution that keeps them in chains so that she can still function, somewhat. It’s not an exorcism in the slightest, but it’s enough to survive.

In the past, she knows she would have simply snuck downstairs to steal her dad’s good scotch and burn the aftertaste of the nightmares with the amber liquid until she felt numb enough to pass out – thankfully, she doesn’t need that. Her solution is so much simpler – but it does require her to hide the truth.

It’s a habit now.

It has been for the past month since the nightmares started, the arm thrown over her form, the hand in hers, or their legs tangled together under the covers just isn’t enough. She has to crawl into his space, rouse him from his slumber, and press close to the one thing that truly keeps the demons at bay.

And every night, still half asleep, he pulls her into his arms as she settles against his chest and mumbles the same thing, “Y’okay?”

And every night her response is different and is either an outright lie or she skirts around the real issue; “ _I’m cold.”, “I had a weird dream.”, “I can’t sleep.”, “You looked lonely over there all by yourself.”_

Sometimes, if the nightmares of losing him linger, she’ll initiate sex so that she can be sure and certain in the closest way possible that he’s here, he’s alive, he’s okay, he’s hers.

Tonight, the nightmare tears at her mind, leaves her open and vulnerable, feeling so much more real than it ever has before. The raw emotions of grief that rush through her system causes her to jump awake with a start, crying out for him.

He shifts, moving towards her, his arms automatically opening, and he mumbles, “’m here, what’s wrong?”

She wastes no time crawling into them, settling against his bare chest, relishing in the feeling of his arms enveloping her. With her ear pressed against his ribcage where she can hear the steady and strong thrumming of his heart, her nervous system finally begins to calm.

“Fal? Tell me what’s wrong, please.”

There’s such a raw pleading in his voice that she finds she can’t stand to hide this truth from him any longer. Finally, after months of torture, the truth bubbles up, frees itself from the prison she’d constructed, and she feels something inside of her break as she finally admits, “Liam, I’m so scared of losing you.”

She waits anxiously for his response as he’s silent for a beat, and she would have assumed he’d fallen back to sleep if it wasn’t for the muscles in his arms tensing, the motion squeezing her closer him, bringing with it an overwhelming sense of comfort which she’d been seeking all along. He presses a kiss against her hairline, and his lips linger there for a tense moment before he pulls back.

She feels, rather than hears, him draw in a breath as he prepares to speak, and the words she expects to tumble out of his mouth are something in the realm of, _“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”_ Or, _“You won’t lose me.”_ And perhaps even, _“Don’t worry about things like that, I’ll be here forever.”_ Which are, unfortunately, empty promises. Because who knows what the future holds? He could be in a car accident tomorrow, wiped from this earth in a matter of seconds and her nightmares would come true, and that thought frightens her to her very core.

So it takes her by surprise when instead, his husky voice responds with, “Me too.”

Her head snaps up, looks into his soft eyes in the dark, her brows furrowed, silently begging for more of an explanation.

“I’m always scared of losing you.” He clarifies, his jaw involuntarily flexing.

Hearing her own words echoed back at her feels like a tidal wave crashing down on her, and suddenly see’s drowning in confusion. She shakes her head, trying to make sense of it, “But I’m not-“ she’s about to say something akin to ‘going anywhere,’ or ‘planning to ever leave you,’ but Liam cuts her off, seemingly already reading the thoughts racing in her mind.

“And neither am I.” He states, simply.

In all of this turmoil she’s been living in for the past few weeks it never occurred to her that maybe Liam has the same insecurities toying with him too. Insecurities he’s certainly hidden well.

“Is this what all of this has been about?” He asks, the concern etched in his voice, “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you haven’t been sleeping.”

She hates this part, it’s what she’s been putting off for weeks, processing it by talking about it and admitting that there was something wrong goes directly against her nature. It isn’t how she’s hardwired; but it is who she wants to be, with him, at least. So she fights her instincts, she’s come too far now to back out anyway, and says, “It’s just… I have these thoughts in my head whenever I close my eyes and if I do sleep I keep having nightmares.”

“And what’s happening in these nightmares?” He asks, his tone low.

Her eyes close for a brief second, and the violent images that have been on replay for weeks flash in her mind, like a terrifying motion picture. The fire, the smoke, his lifeless body being pulled out from the burning building, his lungs filled with black fumes, no longer working. Gone from this world, from her.

“You die.” Her voice breaks, hitching an octave higher, almost like she’s pleading with him. An intense and painful upsurge of emotions takes over, and her vision blurs with unshed tears as the anguish she’s been burying deep finally escapes, “Right in front of my eyes, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

She buries her face against the crook of his neck, his familiar scent surrounding her, only making her want to cling onto him tighter.

“Oh, Fallon.” She hears him breathe out as his fingers begin to trace circles against her skin, attempting to comfort her.

“I know that it’s stupid,” She blurts out, and finds that now that the dam has been broken, her confessions just keep pouring out, “and that it’s just a dream, but it’s every freaking night and I can’t escape it.”

He lets her sob quietly for some time, holding her, uncaring about her salty tears wetting his skin, instead he focuses on reassuring her that her fears aren’t stupid, and with every passing minute it increasingly feels like he’s exorcising her, cleansing her mind.

“I know this probably isn’t what you want to hear,” He mumbles to her once her breathing evens out, “but it is nice to know that you care so much.”

She huffs out a shaky laugh in response, “Shut up, you know that I do.”

“I mean it,” He stresses, and pulls away so that she is forced to lift her head and look him in the eyes. “Look at it this way, if you have something that you’re so afraid of losing, that means that whatever it is that you have must be _really_ good.”

She smiles at that, a warmth radiating in her chest, and realises that it’s the first time in weeks that she’s felt anything remotely close to this state of calm and happiness he’s brought her.

“It’s better than good,” She mutters back and watches as Liam mirrors her expression, a soft grin forming on his face.

“I know it is. It’s _everything,_ ” He stresses, and brings his hand up to gently cup her face, “Come here.”

They’re chemically drawn closer to one another, their lips meeting in the middle in a soft, but love affirming kiss. She finds she can draw strength from it, from _him,_ as their mouths slot together perfectly, their lips tenderly pressing against one another and _finally,_ she can let the demons go.

She settles back against his chest once they pull apart, readjusting their positions into a comfortable tangle of limbs.

As she finally begins to relax her body, her tears now dry, it occurs to her that maybe this is just the price that you pay for love… _Real_ , love. The kind of love that you fight for, the kind that they _have_ fought for, relentlessly, time and time again. The kind of love that in the dark hours of the night, reminds you that you don’t ever want to lose it.

What a beautiful, terrifyingly fragile thing to have.

She sleeps soundly that night, and the next night, and the night after that. It takes time, but she slowly begins to accept that the fear will never leave and that some nights she just needs to hear his heartbeat like a metronome, safe in his arms, lulling her into a dreamless slumber.


	20. baby bump

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a terrible person, I know, I know. I had absolutely no idea of what to write for this week's kiss and well, I didn't have any solid ideas until we got that falliam pic. So yeah, I decided to give it a shot.
> 
> I wrote this in 1 hour, I haven't edited and it's not beta'd but it's a shot of fluff for our favorite characters and I hope you enjoy it anyway!

It was past two o’clock when Liam walked through the front door that night. Two of his closest high school friends had surprised him with a visit to Atlanta earlier that afternoon and when he was invited to a party that night, it was practically impossible to say no to. Honestly, there was no place he would rather be than in bed, cuddling his wife and talking to the barely noticeable bump on her stomach for hours on end, that Friday night. However, he hadn’t seen the two men in almost a year and Fallon insisted he joined them for one crazy, partying night as she called it.

He was slightly tipsy as he made his way up to the second floor, taking each step carefully as he slid his hand on the rail to his right. There were still a couple of steps to go when he spotted the soft yellow light coming from the master bedroom. It wasn’t odd for Fallon to be awake at that time of the night, but he could only hope she was doing anything but _working_.

As Liam approached the door, however, opening it slowly as to not make any noise that would disturb her, he frowned in surprise when he didn’t spot her right away. The sheets and blankets were a mess but she wasn’t in bed but the fire was still crackling in the fireplace, which could only mean she wasn’t far from there.

Removing his jacket and kicking off his shoes, he headed in the direction of their walk-in closet but stopped on his tracks as soon as he heard the sound that had become quite familiar to him during the past two months. Rushing into the bathroom, he could only sigh at the sight of Fallon sitting by the toilet, throwing up all the contents that seemed to be in her stomach while holding her hair back as best as she could.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Liam spoke softly, throwing himself on the floor next to her before running a hand gently up and down her back.

“You’re home,” Fallon stated, her eyes sparkling in relief when she saw her husband only an inch away from her.

“I’m home,” he nodded. “And I’m right here, Fal, I’m right here,” he whispered while taking her hair in his hands, pulling it backwards when she leaned forward to throw up again.

“I hate this,” she murmured.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Liam asked, concerned. “Fallon, I would have left that bar hours ago if I knew you weren’t feeling well,”

“I didn’t want to ruin your night with your friends,” she admitted.

“Fal, you and our baby girl are the only ones that matter,” he offered her a smile. “Did something happen or is this just your usual morning sickness?”

“No, nothing happened,” Fallon reassured him. “Pretty much my annoying morning sickness that likes to hit me in the middle of the night, when I’m perfectly comfortable in bed,” she groaned in frustration.

“What did you eat for dinner?”

“The pasta you left for me,” she replied.

“The whole bowl?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “I made myself some ginger tea around midnight… when I started feeling sick and it helped for a while,” she explained. “Then I figured I would try to eat some of those salty crackers because I was a bit hungry and well, that’s how I ended up here,”

“Let’s make sure you feel better and then I will fix you something to eat, okay?” Liam suggested.

“I don’t feel like eating,” Fallon shook her head. “I thought our baby girl had enjoyed daddy’s pasta but then,”

“She rejected the crackers,” he finished her sentence.

“She did,” it was all she was able to speak before throwing up more. “I feel dizzy,”

“You seem to have thrown up everything you ate tonight so your blood pressure is most likely low, babe,” Liam informed her. “Do you think you’re going to throw up again?”

“I don’t think so,”

“Okay, I will help you get up and then we’re going back to bed, okay?” She nodded. “Stand up slowly,” he instructed, holding onto her hand while she stood on her feet. “Now sit down for a couple of minutes,” he gestured towards the toilet. “You threw up on your top so I will get you something fresh and clean to wear, alright?”

“Can you get me something yours?” Fallon asked.

“Of course,” Liam offered her a smile. “T-shirt or hoodie?”

“Hoodie,”

Liam rushed to the closet and in less than five minutes, he changed his own clothes into the pajamas he had been wearing that week before choosing one of Fallon’s favorite hoodies of his. It was a light gray piece from his high school years and it didn’t even fit him anymore but for some reason, she loved it. She would even ask him sleep with it from time to time in order to keep his scent alive in the piece of clothing, making him hug the hoodie as if it was a teddy bear since its sleeves barely fit his muscular biceps. She had already removed her silk top and was standing up from the toilet when he returned.

“They’re getting bigger,” he mentioned, pointing to her breasts.

“So is this,” she looked down while placing his hand on her stomach.

“I can’t wait to meet her,” Liam told her, his eyes filled with love as he stared into the bright blue of her matching orbs.

“Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go,” Fallon rolled her eyes.

“Hold your arms up,” he requested, holding the hoodie out for her so he could slip it through her head and down her arms.

“Are you going out with your friends this weekend?” She asked.

“They invited me, yes,” Liam nodded. “Paul has tickets for a baseball game tomorrow but I told him I had to talk to you first,”

“I can only imagine the hard time they gave you about that… asking your wife for permission to go to a game,” Fallon couldn’t help but laugh.

“I know I don’t need your permission, babe,” he shrugged. “I just don’t want to leave you all alone in this house when you’re not feeling well. That’s all,” he admitted. “I wish you had told me you weren’t feeling good tonight,”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, taking a few steps towards the sink so she could brush her teeth.

“I’m staying with you all weekend, okay?” Liam informed. “I wish I could go through some of these bad parts for you but since I can’t, I will be here, by your side, taking care of you as much as I can,” he whispered while positioning himself behind her. “Turn around,”

“Why?” She questioned, staring at him through the mirror in front of them.

“Just do it, babe,” he chuckled.

“You better not be getting any ideas because I’m not in the mood for that, Liam,” Fallon muttered as she turned around in his arms, noticing him crouching down on the floor.

“I’m not,” Liam rolled his eyes, pushing the hoodie slightly upwards so he could expose her belly. “Baby girl, it’s daddy here,” he began. “Mommy and daddy already love you very much, just like we tell you every single night, but mommy is not feeling really well tonight because you’re growing and you’re messing up with a lot of stuff inside her body,”

Fallon was still brushing her teeth but she couldn’t help but shake her head, letting out a soft laugh, at his words.

“Daddy bought a lot of ice cream this morning at the grocery store and I can promise you that mommy will give you the best flavors we have, but you have to take care of mommy too, baby girl,” he requested. “Do you think you can sleep for a couple of hours and be very quiet in there, without giving mommy nausea?”

“So this is how you’re going to deal with her when she does something wrong?” She giggled. “I mean, I’m only three months pregnant and you’re already bribing her with ice cream?”

“If it works…” He shrugged, the words trailing on his tongue as he placed his hands on her hips to pull her closer to him. “So, baby girl, do we have a deal?”

“I think she is telling me that she wants a bedtime story tonight,” Fallon told him.

“Oh, does she?” Liam questioned playfully. “I guess I can think of a nice story to tell you tonight, baby girl, but remember our deal, okay?” He teased before placing a long and gentle kiss on her belly. “Daddy loves you very much, baby girl, and he can’t wait to miss you,” he spoke, tracing his thumbs against her bare skin as he continued to pepper kisses all over her belly, making Fallon forget about her teeth, the tooth brush in her mouth but most of all, the horrible nausea she had been feeling for the past two hours.


	21. haunt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is....a very different style than anything I've done before. Maybe don't read if you're like, insanely easily spooked? 
> 
> Um. Yeah. 
> 
> Didn't really proof read for spelling/grammar either so, soz, but I'm lazy.

A dark black shadow sweeps across her line of sight.

It’s sudden and it’s oh so brief, but it’s enough to give her an uneasy feeling that shoots throughout her veins. So much so that she drops the bottle of crimson wine on the hard kitchen floor, glass shattering into a thousand tiny shards as the deep red liquid pools below her feet, soaking the stark white socks that she had settled on her feet in the cool autumn air. She curses under her breath, setting the glass she couldn’t fill to the top down on the counter before she’s careful to step over the tiny fragments of glass dancing across the floor.

“Fal?” His voice penetrates the disturbing silence that settles in the kitchen, bringing her back to the present moment and dwindling her thoughts away from the darkness lurking outside. She watches as he takes in the sight before them, the broken bottle and the millions of tiny pieces of glass scattered in random patterns against their floor. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” she says with a soft texture to her tone. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Babe, there’s glass _everywhere_ ,” he points out as he finds his way to her side and grabs at her arms to examine every inch of her in search of blood pooling at the surface of her skin. He pulls her into his side a little tighter and she’s quick to lean her weight against his strength. She feels his lips press against the crown of her head, lingering in a kiss that fills her with a warmth and calm only he could provide her. The cold air that was fighting its way back into the room finds its way back in, shivers crawling under her skin when he opens his mouth once more. “What is it? What happened?”

She shakes her head, willing the thoughts and fear that draped over her like a cape to leave her frazzled mind as quickly as they came. “Nothing.”

“You look like you just saw a ghost,” he says with his hands settling against her face, cupping her frame in an attempt to keep her close to him, forcing her to look straight into his eyes. It’s in an attempt to keep her anxieties from spiraling, as he knew they so easily could, just as much as it’s an attempt to get a good look into her soul, as he could read her just as easily as an open book.

“I thought I saw someone outside,” she says, letting herself sink into his embrace, the stubborn layer of fear falling slowly when the love shining in his blue eyes finds its way into hers. “I’m probably just imagining it.”

“What?” His shriek surprises her as he pulls away, quickly finding his way around the corner of their kitchen and into their foyer,meandering his way to their front door. His hand stops on the rusted handle before turns back to face her.“Someone was outside?”

“I could have _sworn_ they were walking away from the porch through the kitchen window.”

Liam opens the door as she lingers behind him, unsure if she’s brave enough to look at what horrors could possibly be lurking around their properties. It’s probably nothing, she assumes, trying to dismiss those fears that lurk so easily behind her. _But what if it’s not nothing_ , she thinks. It’s with that simple question that she finds herself peeking around his slightly taller frame, trying to lay eyes on whatever it is that’s got her husband in a trance all of a sudden.

A _box_.

A shimmery gold box with words written on it.

Words that looked eerily like they were written in _blood_.

_You’re next._

“What the hell is that?”

Liam, who’d fallen to his knees to get a different angle on the box pivots his feet to face her, a quizzical look in his eyes. “Should I open it?”

“Is this some type of sick prank?” Her voice is exasperated when she speaks, fear lingering just below the surface but disbelief still spinning in her mind as she thinks there’s no possible way for this to be _real._ “I bet you its Adam. Trying scare us. Trying to scare _me.”_

Liam is the only one brave enough to step forward and life the flaps up on the cardboard box, a sharp intake of breath leaving his body when he jumps backwards in shock at whatever was lying in that box. He’s up on his feet in a split second, stumbling back on his feet towards her. His hand comes up to cover his mouth in a type of fear and panic she’s never seen written on her husbands face before.

“I don’t think it’s Adam, Fallon.”

“What?”

Curiosity gets the better of her, as she lets herself step forward and peek at the contents inside of that haunting box that was set perfectly on their doorstop. She sinks to her knees when she gets a good look inside it, only to find a severed head placed too precisely inside for her own liking. The wide eyes look up at her, hallow and empty and no life staring back up at her. It almost looks like a mannequin, and she might even believe that if she couldn’t recognize the person the skull belonged to. How wickedly taunting the body starring back at her looks, that vibrant red hair that’s matted with dried blood.

And the only thing she can think of is the alarming and disturbing message that was left behind for her.

_You’re next._


	22. love bites.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam assumed his existence would be doomed for all eternity. His soul gone, his heart heavy. Then he met her, and everything changed. Now in one fatal swoop, all of that is put on the line.

**Love Bites**

All of his life, his mother has warned him to never fall in love with a human. 

“They’re fragile, weak little things,” She once spat at him when she had discovered him fraternising with one, putting an end to it immediately.

She didn’t appreciate being reminded that once upon a time, she was one. 

Liam supposes that’s why she holds that view. It had been Victorian England, 1854. The Lowden’s were wealthy landowners in Derbyshire, high in society, respected, powerful; almost completely struck down by the white plague. Only the two of them had survived... To a degree. 

They called it consumption at the time, a disease which attacked the lungs, made it impossible to breathe. It didn’t matter if you were old or young, rich or poor... There was no escape from it. It was a death sentence. His father had been the first to show signs; Liam had been the one to catch him coughing into his silk handkerchief, crimson blood adorning the cream material, staining the embroidered family crest. John had hidden it for so long that by the time Laura became aware of his contraction of the disease, it was too late, and it had spread its way throughout the family. 

Still, she did all she could. A rumour had been whispered in the circles his Mother frequented, a cure, of sorts. A doctor from London who could be hired, at a shocking price, who had an unorthodox method to rid the human body of the otherwise terminal ailment. The price didn’t matter to Laura, it was _something._ It was _hope._

Yet, tragedy still struck them down. By the time the doctor made it to his family's manor, his father was nought but a stone-cold corpse. His mother was clearly the next to go; pale, weak, barely conscious. He recalls holding her hand, dizzy himself from the bacteria in his own body trying to drag him into his own oblivion, watching her life slowly slip away as he prayed for a miracle. 

A miracle didn’t walk through the door. 

Pain, misery, suffering, starvation, guilt, loneliness, an eternal _curse._ That’s what walked through the door. 

He appeared to be like any other man, tall, clean-shaven, respectable-looking, handsome – mesmerizingly so. A strange calm had overtaken Liam the moment the doctor stepped into the bedroom and approached him and his dying mother. 

He said he could be trusted. He said he was here to help. He said he was here to save them. Liam, -or Jack, as he was known at the time – believed him. 

And save them – their physical forms, their minds, their memories, he did... But his _soul_ had not been saved. It had been tainted, doomed to damnation. 

Liam had expected the doctor to produce a tonic from his Gladstone bag containing some rare and almost impossible to procure ingredient. Oh, how naïve he was... The doctor had nothing but himself to offer. 

The image of what happened next still haunts him to this very day, even centuries later. The flash of teeth too sharp to be human, suddenly sinking into his mother’s skin, her letting out a blood-curdling scream. 

“Don’t be afraid.” He’d said. 

But Liam _was_ afraid. _Of course,_ he was afraid. But he was also paralysed, completely frozen, unable to move – under the doctor's spell. 

Then those teeth again, eyes turning to a ruby red, being held down with an iron grip, his weakened body unable to resist... Then pain. 

Burning, stabbing, unbearable pain writhing throughout his body, setting his veins alight. 

It felt like a millennium had passed in that state, but in reality, it was merely a few minutes. 

The suffering never ended there. That was only the beginning. 

The thirst came next. 

Then the violent urges. 

A wanting to hunt, to kill, to satisfy himself. 

All compulsions he’s never felt before – having never been power-hungry, nor bloodthirsty. Jack Lowden was a respected writer, inspired by the romance of the countryside in his place of birth, and in one fatal sweep, it was all taken away from him. 

For centuries, he's been jealous of his father’s fate. He didn’t have to learn to control the urges. He didn’t have to uproot his life every few years, assume a new identity, never let anyone get close to him. He took the easy way out. For Liam, that isn’t even an option – because although existing on earth had felt like a version of hell for _so_ long, he’s sure that it doesn’t equate to the torture he would experience if he ended his existence. 

So, he wandered, with only his mother for company and the other immortals she’s tried to throw his way, all of them shallow, believing humans lives mean nothing. That isn’t him.

Still, he’s been very careful to not get too close to humanity, despite the fact that most of the time he _feels_ human. 

But then he met her. 

And since then he’s broken every rule, and every promise he’s made to himself. 

He shouldn’t have... He knows that now, he should have stayed away, he should have _resisted,_ because unfortunately, his mother was right. Humans _are_ fragile. They _are_ weak. 

_She_ is fragile.

 _She_ is weak. 

_She_ is dying. 

~

It all happened so quickly, one moment they were alone, happy. Curled up in one another’s embrace in front of the crackling fire. He could hear her heartbeat, steady and strong, a comforting rhythm that let him know that she was healthy and safe. 

“Fallon?” He didn’t recognise the voice that called out to her in a desperate plea from the shadows, but she apparently did, jumping with a start. 

“What the- Evan?!” She called back, standing to move towards the intruder, “What are you doing here?” 

_Evan_.

He recognized the name as being someone from her workplace - he'd possibly even met the man a few times, albeit very briefly. 

The man appeared out of the darkness, revealing himself, a stoic, determined expression on his features. “Fallon, you need to get away from him.” 

She glanced at Liam – a knowing, panicked look in her eyes. Evan knew... But how could Evan possibly know? 

“What are you talking about?” Fallon asked, playing dumb to bide their time. 

“He’s a vampire, Fallon.” 

~

_“You need to tell me the truth.”_

_There's a pleading in her eyes that makes his heartache, he hates being this person – a liar. His intention was never to deceive her, but what choice does he have? She can't know the truth; he's forbidden from telling her anyway. He’s gotten too deep, let himself feel far too much for her. Damn his weakness._

_“You should just let me leave, Fallon. It will be better for both of us if I just go, you'll never have to hear from me again.” It pains him to turn his back to her, but if he doesn’t do this now, he’s not sure he'll ever have the willpower to again._

_“You do that a lot, don’t you?” She throws his way, accusing. It makes him halt, her words catching his attention, and he turns back towards her just before she continues, “Disappear.”_

_“What are you talking about?” He asks, but there’s something new in her expression. A caution he’s never seen before._

_“Jack Lowden.”_

_He doesn't mean to react to her uttering his birth name, but he does, and he knew she saw it. “An author, born in 1838. Died in 1854 of tuberculosis in England.” She holds her phone up to his face, but he keeps his eyes trained on her. “This is a portrait of him.”_

_He somehow gathers the courage to look, and involuntarily sucks in a sharp breath. He thought they’d all been destroyed._

_“So it is you,” she mutters under her breath._

_“Fallon, I can explain...” Except he can’t. What lie could he possibly come up with to explain why a portrait of his family living in the 1800s exists? A distant relative, perhaps? A coincidence?_

_“And John Southside.”_

_Her thumb swipes across the glass screen of her phone, revealing yet another image of him, an identity he'd used when he and his mother had settled in America in the 1920s. They'd been careful up to that point, but his mother had become greedy and had married a rich gangster so that she could go back to living the life of luxury she had become accustomed to. With that, came the risk of exposure. Came the risk of photographs like this being discovered years later. Meaning there is no way he can claim it’s just a coincidence._

_“Leland Van Kirk.”_

_Her thumb swipes again. A newspaper clipping. That one was his fault. He’d become bored, and wanted to do something with his doomed existence that could actually be considered_ good _. So in the 50’s he'd set up a small private investigative business, and he'd done well to keep out of the media... Until that damn diamond case._

_He gathers the courage to look at her, and instantly feels his gut twist at the sight of tears glistening in her cerulean eyes._

_She feels betrayed, and rightly so._

_“And now,” She says with a shaky voice, looking him up and down, “Liam Ridley. There’s no record of you existing until 5 years ago.”_

_He looks down, unsure of how to respond. It’s becoming impossible for him to take seeing her pained expression that he's caused, that he could have avoided, if only he had stayed away._

_“That’s because Liam Ridley didn’t exist until 5 years ago.” He explains, “I was someone else, living in Europe. But, if you know my birth name was Jack Lowden, you'll know my whole name is Jack William Ridley Lowden. So, it's not exactly a whole lie."_

_Fallon scoffs, which takes him by surprise, his head snapping up to assess her again._

_“I knew there was something different about you,” She says, wrapping her arms across her chest as if to guard herself. “But_ this _?”_

_Liam tries to get closer to her, but she steps back immediately, the muscles in her arms flexing. He can hear her heartbeat speed up and it breaks him to realise that she’s scared of him._

_“I never wanted to lie to you...” He begins, trying to salvage whatever is left between the two of them._

_“-What do you want with me?” She cuts him off, her tone softer, but tinged with fear._

_“Do you think I’m going to hurt you?” He asks, almost offended by her reaction, “Fallon, I’m trying to leave, you don’t have to be afraid of me.”_

_“You’re a vampire, Liam!” She exclaims, “Or an immortal, or whatever it is that you are. Of_ course, _I’m afraid of you.”_

_He notices her beginning to tremble and wants nothing more than to comfort her but knows he can't. He’s sure that nothing he can do will bring her any solace._

_“I know, I know, but Fallon I promise I would never,_ ever _hurt you. I don’t do that to_ anyone _least of all_ you _.”_

_She shakes her head in disbelief, “But aren’t you designed that way? Why would you not?”_

_“Because I'm in love with you.”_

~

“A vampire?” Fallon laughed, humorlessly. “Have you lost your mind? Vampires don’t exist, Evan.”

Her lie didn’t convince him in the slightest and Liam _knew_ immediately in that moment that he would have to take action. He hated using his powers of compulsion to deceive humans, but Evan wasn’t really giving him any other choice. 

“I can prove it.” 

Liam almost felt sorry for the man, assuming he was going to do something dramatic like cut his wrist to make himself bleed. He would likely expect Liam to smell the blood and go into a frenzy. Except, 1) Liam was already well-fed, and 2) Even if he hadn’t have been, he has excellent self-control. 

So Liam was surprised when instead, Evan produced a small trinket box from his jacket pocket, intricate in design. 

_It couldn’t be-_

Evan lifted the lid without hesitation, unleashing a sound which pierced his skull. A stabbing, intense pain radiated in his head, causing Liam to gasp out loud and crumple to the ground on his knees, his hands clutched to the side of his head. 

“Stop it!” Fallon cried, crouching next to Liam, her arms going around him immediately, “You’re hurting him, Evan. Stop, please.” 

Liam had only ever heard tales of the Grimm's music box, believing it to be a myth. An old artefact apparently created centuries ago which if used, could reveal the identity of a vampire in the room. It was clearly no myth, and it was just as painful as the legends warned.

“Get away from him, Fallon, don’t you see? This is proof, I’m trying to save you from him.” 

“I know that he’s a vampire, you idiot,” Fallon snapped at him, “I swear to god if you don’t close that damn box-”

“It’s worse than I thought,” Evan responded, “He’s managed to trick you. You’re under his spell, Fallon, snap out of it.” 

~

_“So do you have any...” Fallon begins to ask, looking down at him from her position on the bed._

_“Any what?” Liam asks, encouraging her to continue._

_“Vampire... Powers?”_

_He bursts out laughing, much to Fallon's displeasure. She rolls her eyes, slapping his bare chest playfully._

_“You know what I mean.”_

_“I’m sorry,” He says, willing the laughter to concede, “it’s the just way that you said it.”_

_She still doesn’t look impressed._

_“Well?”_

_“What, do you think I can turn into a bat and sleep upside down from the rafters?” He teases, the answer obvious considering she's already seen him sleeping soundly beside her on numerous occasions by now._

_“No,” She responds, deadpan. “But, I’ve seen you eat garlic bread and look in a mirror, so, just... What things from books and stuff are true and what isn't?”_

_“Hardly anything is true,” He replies with a sigh. Which is accurate, he is, for the most part, human. With those few exceptions._

_“Well you drink blood and have fangs,” She continues relentlessly, and Liam knows she’s going to win this one. In all fairness, she_ deserves _to know his abilities, he's just afraid that her knowing might finally be the thing to make her see sense and go running for the hills._

_“Yes,” He confirms with caution. Fallon knows he drinks from blood bags he steals from the local donation center, which is something he isn’t proud of, but it’s better than him taking it straight from the vein of some innocent._

_“Do you have superhuman speed?” She asks._

_“No, I probably wouldn’t need my motorbike if I did,” He responds, attempting to lighten the mood with humor._

_Fallon doesn’t bite._

_“And you can bleed and feel pain, but you heal really quickly, right?”_

_He nods once, firmly._

_“Yes.”_

_“And do these muscles...” Her fingers trace over the defined abs at his stomach, following the pattern there, sending shivers up his spine at the intimate touch, “come with the package?”_

_“I wish. But no, these bad boys are all my own hard work.”_

_She chuckles at him softly, “Okay, so how can you ever manage to...” She pauses, appearing to contemplate her next words, “catch your prey?”_

_Here it is._

_The moment he has to tell her, and he hopes beyond all hope that she believes that he has never used it against her._

_“Well, there is one thing I can do,” He begins, and watches as she perks up with interest, “It’s a mind trick, of sorts. It lures humans into a false sense of security. Makes them trust you and they’ll willingly give themselves up to you.”_

_He hears her heart rate pick up the pace, it’s subtle, but it’s enough to tell him that it’s worried her, “have you ever used that on me?”_

_“No, never. You would know if I had. It feels unnatural like you’re aware it’s happening but there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”_

_At least, that’s what he recalls from the doctor who had used it on him moments before he was turned._

_“Do it.”_

_“Excuse me?” Liam asks._

_“Do it,” She repeats, nodding at him for encouragement._

_He looks apprehensive._

_“Go on, I want to know what it feels like.”_

_Liam sighs until it occurs to him that she actually should experience it, especially in case his Mom ever tried to use it on her._

_“Fine.”_

_It’s been a while since he’s done this, but it still comes naturally to him, like instinct, when he looks her in the eyes and wills her to fall underneath his spell. He knows the second it works when her face falls from its coy smile, and her eyes widen, appearing to be mesmerized by him._

_The rush of her blood pumping through her veins suddenly becomes a deafening noise in his ears; another reason he wouldn’t use this on her – it feeds the temptation._

_She inches closer to him, clearly drawn in against her will, and she no longer smells like_ Fallon. _The scent of her rose-infused perfume is gone, replaced with the sweet, metallic scent of her blood._

_He looks away the second he notices her tilt her head, accentuating her neck in offering to him. It breaks the moment._

_“Whoa, yeah,” she shakes her head, “that was... Intense.”_

_He glances back at her, ensures she’s okay before continuing, concerned that it was too much for her._

_“Yeah, very,” he confirms._

_“And kind of sexy.”_

~

“I know what you’re talking about,” Fallon continued, her tone cautious, “the mind control? Liam doesn’t use that on me. I swear to you, Evan. I fell for him on my own terms.” 

The smaller man hesitated, stammering as he spoke, “I don’t understand...” 

“Just close that damn box and we can talk about this.” 

He finally relented, just as Liam was beginning to feel like the blood in his brain was boiling. The second the box closed and the sound dissipated, Liam fully collapsed, Fallon catching his fall, bringing him into her arms so that he was slumped against her form. Her hands carded through his hair, stroking lightly in an attempt to comfort him.

Whatever the box had done, it had caused damage, leaving Liam feeling completely weakened, and having to rely on his ability to heal quickly to recover. 

“Hey, are you okay?” She whispered to him, but he didn’t even have the energy to be able to respond. 

“Alright, you wanted to talk? Then talk.” Evan began to slowly approach the couple on the floor, now with a determination in his step, “but just know that no matter what you say, it’s going to end in the same way, with me killing him.” His hand reached into his inner breast pocket and produced a dagger, long and silver with a distinctive handle, one that Fallon recognised immediately.

“How did you get that?” 

~

_“I want you to have this,” Liam says to her, holding a long, antique trinket._

_Fallon furrows her brows, taking it from his hands with caution, “What is it?”_

_He hesitates for a moment, taking in a deep breath, willing himself to find the courage he needs._

_“Open it,” he requests._

_Her slender fingers slowly wrap around the lid, dislodging it, revealing the weapon laying inside. Her eyes snap up to his, confusion still written on her face._

_“Liam? This is a...”_

_“It’s a dagger,” he confirms. “It’s a special one, there aren’t many of these in the world. It’s the only kind that can kill me.”_

_Fallon sucks in a sharp breath, looking repulsed by the item in her hands, “What? I don’t want this. Why would you want me to have this?”_

_He offers her a tight-lipped smile, “To prove that you can trust me.”_

_“I already do,” She says, “I don’t need one of the only things in the world that could kill you to trust you.”_

_“Fallon, please, just take it. It would make me feel better knowing you have it anyway, you know, just in case any of my mother’s vampire friends find out about us and don’t approve.”_

_She nods slowly, understanding his intentions._

_“Alright,” She agrees, “I promise I’ll keep it safe.”_

~

“Oh, this?” Evan twirled it in his fingers, Liam catching the motion since regaining the strength to look up, “you should be more careful about your safe combination.” 

“You sick son of a bitch,” Fallon gritted out, holding Liam closer to her as if to protect him, “I won’t let you hurt him.” 

“He’s really done a number on you, hasn’t he?” Evan spat out, inching closer, the dagger pointing towards them, “let me guess, he’s told you he’s a good guy, he has great self-control? He wouldn’t hurt someone innocent? Well, what about my sister?” He roared out, his emotions evidently running high, “ _she_ was innocent, but you killed her anyway.”

Liam shook his head weakly, “I’m sorry about your sister, but I _did not_ kill her. I don’t even know who she is.” 

“Lies!” 

The couple flinched at his outburst, “I’m not lying...” 

“Of course, you would say that,” Evan snarled before turning his attention to Fallon, “-and then I found out that you’re going to marry him, and I knew I had to save you before you end up with the same fate as her. I _will_ save you.” 

Without warning, he lunged forward with purpose, the sharp tip of the dagger lined up perfectly with Liam's heart. 

“NO-"

~

_“Why are you acting so strange today?” Fallon asks, rumpling his hair as they stand side by side, looking out at the Carrington lake, smiling as he ducks out of her way, throwing her an annoyed expression at messing up his hairstyle._

_“I’m not,” he throws back, but can’t help a small smile forming on his lips._

_“Oh, you so are. Are you thirsty?” She questions and peels off the band-aid from her inner wrist, showing him the already healing puncture marks she had encouraged him to make there just this morning. “I’ll be fine if you want more.”_

_He looks down at her offering, “No,” he says, still in disbelief that Fallon has become so insistent on Liam drinking from her, “but thank you for the offer.”_

_“Alright,” she shrugs, replacing the band-aid on her wrist, “So if it’s not_ that _then what else is bothering you?”_

_Their eyes meet, and the challenging look on her face gives him the courage he needs to speak his mind._

_“Fal, I know we aren’t... Normal,” he begins._

_“You don’t say.”_

_He breathes out a laugh, “however, there are things in life that I want you to have that_ are _normal, and this... I think I can give you this.”_

_Her brows crease together, looking at him curiously, “give me what, Liam?”_

_Liam throws her a smile before slowly sinking to the ground, bending one knee, the other softly hitting the grass below._

_“What are you doing?” Fallon asks, her eyes wide._

_“Fallon Carrington...” He starts, his hand going into his jacket pocket to retrieve the ring he'd placed there an hour ago. It glistens in the sunlight as he holds it up, rainbow hues reverberating off of the emerald cut peach-colored diamond, “Will you marry me?”_

_Fallon’s gasps out loud as she takes in the sight of the ring, her jaw dropping instantly, “Is that what I think it is?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“But the newspaper story said that it was stolen by the Mafia, have you had that this whole time?”_

_He smirks, nodding in confirmation._

_“Leland Van Kirk, you naughty man.”_

_“Yeah, well, the mafia didn’t deserve it,” He explains, “But_ you _do. Speaking of which, would you_ please _give me an answer?”_

_She lets out a soft laugh, her hands reaching forwards to the lapels of his jacket, tugging, encouraging him to stand._

_“Yes, Liam,” She says once he’s standing, a wide grin on her face, “yes, of course, I will marry you.”_

~

“Fallon!” Liam manages to have the strength to catch her fall, bringing her down to the ground carefully, “Fallon, no, no, no,” Liam cries, his hands frantically working to press against the wound on her stomach. Her blood is _everywhere_. 

“What have you done?” He growls out, leering at the perpetrator who had caused this.

Evan just stands there like he’s frozen to the spot, clearly shocked at what had happened.

The smaller man begins to tremble when he hears Fallon shriek, terrified, and in agony. Then he lets go of his iron grip on the silver dagger coated in crimson, allowing it to clatter to the floor like Fallon's body had.

He runs.

_Coward._

“Liam...” She stares up at him, gripping onto his arm, wincing. He holds her tighter, knowing instantly that there is nothing he can do to stop the bleeding.

“Why did you do that?” Liam asks her, desperately.

She'd jumped in front of him, blocking Evan's determined path to pierce Liam's heart, ending up with it stabbing into her gut instead. Evan didn’t even let go of the dagger, instead, he pulled it out of her, allowing her to bleed out.

“He would have killed you,” She manages to get out, shakily. 

“ _I_ don’t matter,” Liam urges, “but you...” She’s dying, rapidly losing blood from the wound, he’s sure that if it wasn’t _her_ he would be fighting against his primal urges right now, but apparently, his human side is winning out. His love for her far more important than his craving to taste blood.

“I can’t lose you, Fallon," he cries, “please don’t leave me.” 

Then, like the sound of an angel in his ears, she answers a prayer he's never dared to utter.

“Turn me,” her weak voice pleads, “Liam, please.”

They'd discussed it only once. Fallon had been the one to bring it up, and had spoken so matter-of-factly about the whole thing, _“When you turn me.”_ To which he’d told her, firmly, that he never would, that he wouldn’t take away her soul like that. Her response had been to roll her eyes in a typical Fallon Carrington style, _“We’ll see,”_ she'd thrown back. 

That had been it. 

A stalemate. 

Now the situation is different because at the time Liam thought they’d have decades. Now they don’t even have minutes. He can see it in her paling face, hear it in her slowing, weakening heartbeat. They should have talked about it because, in reality, she has no idea what she's asking for.

“You don’t understand,” He begins, “we're in love. If I turn you, we'll be bound together for all of eternity.” 

“Don’t you think that’s what I want?” She throws back without hesitation, “Liam I agreed to marry you.” 

“Marrying me and spending eternity with me are two very different things,” He responds, unsure of why he’s even trying to talk her out of this because an eternity with Fallon by his side is truly all he wants - but he can’t be selfish. She _has_ to want this herself, knowing all the gory details.

“Well, if you don’t turn me, we won’t even get to the marriage part,” She croaks out slowly like every word is a struggle, and Liam can see blood on her tongue, meaning she'll soon be drowning in it. They don’t have long. “I’m dying, Liam. I can _feel_ it. Listen, I know you don’t want this for me because you believe that you don’t have a soul, but you do. I’ve seen it since the first day I met you. You won’t be taking anything from me, you'll be giving me what I want. Forever, with you. Liam, you _have_ to turn me.” 

He still has his reservations, deep down inside he still believes that he and his species are an abomination, and she'll be doomed just as much as he is. Yet, he cannot deny her. He loves her too much to lose her, and she is right. Her life is slipping away, quickly. He has to act fast. 

“Alright,” He concedes, giving her a tight-lipped, watery smile, satisfied that she's certain of her choice, “this is going to hurt for just a minute, okay?” 

She nods weakly, trembling in his arms, likely frightened, and yet her eyes are full of trust. 

Liam caresses the silky hair atop her head for a brief moment before pulling her closer, and he draws his fangs, nuzzling at the soft skin of her neck. 

His teeth sink in. 

Fallon gasps at the sensation, but otherwise remains the same, grasping onto him with the last of the strength she has left, and he releases the venom into her bloodstream. 

He expects her to scream, recalling how much of a painful experience it had when he was turned, but when he pulls back to take a look at her, she is still. Peaceful, even. 

For a brief, heart-wrenching second he wonders if he had been too late, but no. He listens closely, picking up the sluggish drum of her heart beating, circulating the venom throughout her veins, immortalising her. 

All he can do now is wait. 

“I just hope you don’t hate me forever for doing this to you,” He whispers down to her, sure she cannot hear, but the sentiment is all the same. 

He suspects this would have always been the outcome between the two of them, Fallon is stubborn and determined. What she wants, she gets. Like the truth about him, it had taken a lot of digging to find all that evidence of his previous identities and had demanded he be honest. It still feels like a miracle that she didn’t expose him then, see him as nothing but a monster. Impossible, but in the end, his Fallon, his brilliant, smart, breathtakingly beautiful Fallon had accepted him anyway, their dark sides were drawn to one another. He supposes that if he does have a soul, it had been waiting to meet hers. 

Now they’ll have this, forever. 

He didn’t want for it to happen this way though; it wasn’t fair that her human life had been taken from her without her choice – all for revenge that had no merit. 

It likely was another vampire which had killed his sister, one without morals or self-control. Liam has no idea how Evan had come to the conclusion that _he_ was the one to have killed her, though. He'll have to investigate into that later. 

Fallon stirs in his arms, immediately grabbing his attention. His eyes assess her quickly, observing that her wound is beginning to heal, which means it’s working. She’s changing. 

Her left-hand flinches and he notices that her engagement ring is coated in blood. She won’t like that; she was meticulous about keeping the stolen diamond sparkling, so he brushes his thumb over it, revealing the peach stone beneath. 

Her whole body suddenly jerks in his arms as she gasps in a desperate breath. Her eyelids shoot open, her eyes a glowing ruby red. She sits up in his lap, leaning against his chest slightly for support. 

“Hey,” he says softly, and her eyes flicker to him, changing back to the blue he was so used to seeing. “How do you feel?” 

She furrows her brows for a moment, flexing her fingers as if testing out her body. 

“I feel... Normal?” She looks at him, a questioning look on her face, “did it even work?” 

“Yeah,” He confirms, “trust me it worked. See? You’re healed. Even that scar on your knee from when you were a kid.” 

Her eyes glance down, noticing that the faint pink line she'd become so accustomed to seeing ever since she tripped whilst trying to push Steven in the pool when she was 8 was now gone. 

“Oh.” She clearly hadn’t expected that “So this is how it is? This is what it feels like to be a vampire?” 

“Well, there is the insatiable bloodlust to contend with too,” he begins, and watches as she brings her hand up to her throat – likely feeling _the thirst_ , “I wouldn’t worry about that too much. I'll teach you to control it.” 

She nods slowly, contemplating. 

“Well, on the plus side, you won’t have the urge to kill me anymore. Maybe we can get a little kinkier in the bedroom.” 

Liam sighs, shaking his head, but is unable to stop from letting out a small laugh, _of course,_ she would see that as a silver lining after just being turned into a vampire. 

“Are you sure okay?” Liam asks, cupping her face, assessing her. 

“I'm sure,” she confirms, “In fact, I feel... Kind of good.” 

Liam smiles. He knows that feeling. It’s a feeling of invincibility, knowing that you’re powerful. It doesn’t surprise him that Fallon relishes in that feeling. Perhaps she was born to end up becoming this way. He has to admit, it suits her. 

“I’m just thankful that I didn’t lose you.” 

Her expression softens, “I’m difficult to get rid of.” 

“Thank god for that,” Liam responds and uses his finger to tilt her chin up, leaning forwards to bring their lips together. 

He feels her smile into the kiss, her hands coming up to frame his face, and she presses closer. Their mouths move together, slowly, tenderly at first, finding a gentle rhythm. Now he understands the whole eternal bond thing because it strengthens with every press of his lips against hers, every soft caress, they’re like magnets and they need to be closer. 

They break the kiss, only for a moment as they stare at one another with an intense, knowing look. They both feel it, they’re tethered to one another, indefinitely.

Fallon shifts so that she is straddling him, her elbows resting on his shoulders and his arms circle her waist, pulling her in. 

Her lips crash against his, no longer sweet, but desperate. She was right, it is nice to kiss her without a lingering violent impulse in the back of his mind, he can let go.

Apparently, she does too, nipping at his bottom lip, begging for permission, slipping her tongue inside his mouth at the first chance she gets. Her body moves against his, clinging to him, like he's her lifeline, sharing one breath. 

He swears he can hear her thoughts, needing more, more, more.

“Ow,” He exclaims in surprise as he pulls back, a streak of blood dripping down his chin, escaping from his own lip. He smirks at her, as he wipes it away, teasing as he says, “Can you put your fangs away before you bite me again?” 

She gasps, her fingers going up to feel at her newly acquired sharpened teeth, “How did I do that?” 

“Let’s just say you were just thinking with your... Primal urges,” he chuckles, earning him a quirked eyebrow thrown his way, “You’ll get used to it.” 

“I wondered why my gums hurt so much.” She comments, “how do I...?” 

“Make them go away?” He asks, “Just breathe, and try to focus on something else.” 

She nods and turns her head to find a distraction, her eyes falling on the bloodied dagger left on the ground.

“Evan...” 

The sound of that coward's name immediately infuriates him.

“He ran,” Liam explains, “But don’t worry he couldn’t have gotten far. We'll catch up to him.” 

Fallon turns to look back at him, taking in his angered expression, “I thought you didn’t kill.” 

“I don’t kill innocents, but he hurt you. He's hardly innocent,” he growls out, his voice low, his eyes flashing to red, “besides, don’t you think it’s poetic for your first taste of blood to be from the jugular of the man who almost killed you?” 

She smirks down at him, “Let’s go get the bastard.” 

~

“Hello, Evan.” 

He startles, his eyes darting around the darkness in a panicked frenzy. Liam can hear his heart beating frantically in his chest, can practically smell the fear radiating from him, and he’s never wanted to taste someone's blood this badly before. 

“Fallon?” Evan calls out, unable to see her until she steps into view. He gasps at the sight of her, still covered in her own blood, “How are you alive?” 

She chuckles darkly, approaching him slowly. Evan makes a move to run, but Fallon turns on her charm, the first time she’s done it – it clearly comes naturally to her, and Liam can’t help but feel proud as Evan is forcibly frozen to the spot, unable to move. 

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” She says, her voice sultry, luring, “it’s your own survival I’d be concerned with right now.” 

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” He blurts out, desperately. 

“Perhaps not, but you tried to kill the man I love. No one gets away with that, right honey?” 

Liam smirks from the shadows, stepping closer so that he can be seen, and eventually joins her so that they're standing side by side. 

“Please,” Evan begs, “don’t.”

“I’d say this isn’t going to hurt,” Liam begins, taking Fallon’s hand and stalking closer, “but I _really_ hope it does.” 

They both flash their fangs and lunge forwards. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Halloween, everyone.


	23. baby, please don’t go

She wasn’t sure how long it had been.

She wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting there. Waiting.

She wasn’t sure how long her fiancé had been lying on that bed, his blood rushing through his veins and his heart beating inside his chest but with the possibility of not waking up still very real.

Then, it hit her. Could she really call him that when none of them had rings on their fingers? When even though she had dropped on one knee – as best as she could in the boat – and asked him to be hers forever, he lied unconsciously on a hospital bed after almost drowning to death.

“You have no idea how much I miss you,” Fallon whispered, her voice the only sound cracking the cold and bitter silence in the Carrington Wing. “I feel…” She paused, not knowing exactly what to say. It felt like her brain was going a thousand miles per hour. “Lonely,” she added. “Like I’ve felt all my life, if I’m being honest, Liam,” she admitted. “The problem is that you’ve given me a taste of what’s like to feel whole again, of what’s like to actually have someone by your side and now…” She took a deep breath as she looked up at the ceiling, focusing her watery blue eyes on the bright LED lights in a failing attempt to keep the tears from falling.

“Excuse me, Miss Carrington,” Clara, one of the night nurses, stepped into the room with a tablet in hand. “I just need to check Mr. Ridley’s vitals,” she informed, somehow feeling that she needed to explain why she had was walking into the private room while a Carrington was in there.

“He looks exactly the same,” the brunette mentioned.

“His body is still recovering from the trauma, Miss Carrington,” she quickly responded. “It’s not unusual for him to still be unconscious,”

“Yet it doesn’t feel like he’s actually here,” Fallon rolled her eyes as the nurse checked the numbers on the small monitor by his bed.

“We can’t know for sure how long it’s going to take for Mr. Ridley to wake up but his vitals are good, Miss Carrington. Now it’s up to him,” she told her.

“We’re engaged,” she murmured, suddenly blurting out a detail of her personal life that she wouldn’t normally disclose to a stranger. “I mean, we were… for about an hour,” she shrugged. “Now he’s fighting for his life,”

“I’m sorry,” Clara said softly. “Pardon me for my intrusion, Miss Carrington, but are you staying tonight?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “His mother should show up in Atlanta at any moment and only god knows what will happen then,” she groaned. “I might as well stay with him as much as I can,”

“No doctor would ever recommend this,” the nurse began, “but I can’t help suggesting it to you as I see the tears timidly rolling down your cheeks,” she offered her a smile. “Lie down next to him, place your head on his chest and allow yourself to focus on his heartbeat. Take deep breaths until you’re both breathing at the same rhythm and try to keep your brain clean from any thoughts for a couple of minutes,” she explained. “It may not seem much but deep down, you will know he’s still here with you. He hasn’t gone anywhere, Miss Carrington,” she glanced one last time at his file before turning off the tablet.

As soon as Clara exited the private hospital room, Fallon looked around the practically empty space and wasted no time kicking off her Jimmy Choo’s once she heard the door close. The next nurse to check on Liam wasn’t supposed to arrive for another six hours, which meant it was finally just the two of them.

Before lying down next to him, she reached for the fleece blanket on the couch and quickly covered both of their bodies as she snuggled against her fiancé’s chest. Just as the kind nurse had suggested, she made sure to rest her head over his heart, waiting to see if his heartbeat and heartbeat alone would be able to bring her the peacefulness she needed so much at that moment.

“I really thought we were going to make it this time,” Fallon murmured, taking her hand up to her chin, her fingers closed tight in a fist as the emotions took over her body. There was nothing stopping the tears or the painful and breathless sobs. “You’ve taught me what’s like to enjoy life, Liam. You did what no one in my family ever could,” she continued. “In a way, you taught me to love myself but above everything, babe, you promised me that I wouldn’t feel alone ever again… you promised,” she begged. “I have no idea why or how you fell into that stupid pool but you can’t leave me, Liam. I need you,”

“I’ve watched my fair share of romantic and dramatic movies to know that while it feels like I’m talking to these horrible white walls, in fact, you’re listening to every word I say,” she paused, taking a deep breath as it all became too much to her. “This is the part where I look at my hand and dream that one day you will put a ring on it,” she spoke, opening the hand that was closed so tight while her eyes wandered immediately to her ring finger. “That you will wake up and that you will make me yours forever because that’s what I want, Liam. I’ve spent my entire life dreaming of so many things… like winning my father’s respect, getting my mother back or even becoming CEO of Carrington Atlantic but turns out that,” she paused again, raising her head so she could look at his tranquil and unbothered face.

“None of that will ever compare to how you make me feel. I feel butterflies in my stomach every time you look at me and the way you say my name is just different,” she smiled in between tears. “I want to build a family with you, Liam. I want to become your wife and someday, I hope to become the mother of your children,” she told him. “We’ve been married and divorced. I’ve proposed to you only a couple of days ago and now, well, I don’t even know if there’s a wedding in my future,” she shrugged. “And if you allow me to bring back the romantic movies’ topic, all I ask is for you to give me a sign, Liam,” she requested while intertwining their fingers. Although his body was arm, his hand never felt colder. His thumb wasn’t tracing random patterns against the back of her hand like it used to and the tip of his fingers weren’t teasing and tickling the inside of her palm.

“Just give me one sign that everything is going to be okay because right now, the only thing that I can do is hope. So please, give me something. One sign. The tiniest of all,” Fallon begged, using all of her strength to lift their arms, what would normally be such a simple and tender gesture but that right there, felt as if she was lifting a ton. “All I need is one tiny sign from you, that you’re still in here, that I’m not just listening to an organ beat inside a body. I just need to know the love of my life is still in there somehow,” she closed her eyes, already blind by the tears as she brought his hand up to her lips.

Kissing them with so much love and desperation, she pressed his knuckles hard against the flesh of her pink lips while she held onto his hand with her fingers locked tightly around his.

“Because I will be here, Liam, waiting for you. You’re the love of my life and I’m not giving up on you, just like you never gave up on me. Not once,” she promised, drifting off on his chest as sleep finally came, her whole body entering a serene stage before she could feel the slightest twitch of his thumb against her hand.


	24. what would you do

“You haven’t changed a goddamn bit, have you?” 

She spins her head around to look at him behind her, a seething glaze covering her eyes that she’s certain is covered in a vile amount of pure anger and rage and fury. Her body pivots fully, both of their eyes meeting in the center and his are full of anything but that love and warmth and adoration she’s so used to meeting when she finds his baby blues. 

“Excuse me?”

“This whole ‘I want to be a better person,’ spiel you’ve had going on for all these years was just a front,” he huffs with the only air he can pull from his lungs, breathless in disbelief. She watches him run a hand through his hair and pull at the short strands, instantly recognizable as a sign of anxiety and stress and it almost causes her to stop. To step back and reassess and breathe and come back to this conversation when they were both far less angry and spitting less fire at each other. “You don’t want to be a better person, you just don’t want to be held accountable for your actions.”

“Yeah, well you knew what you were getting into when you decided to fall in love with me,” she says with fiery flames escaping her lips, the thought to take a pause long gone before she’s making digging her own claws into him in the form of words. “So, maybe it’s is all your fault for setting yourself up for disappointment.”

“Stop deflecting the situation back at me.”

“Go then, Liam,” she says with a finality she wasn’t ready to hear come out of her own mouth. “If I’m that much of a disappointment, leave. I’m not stoping you. Go.”

“Is that what you really want?”

She falters, and she knows he catches it; he’s too damn aware of all her ticks when her anxieties stretch to their limit. She’s faster though, putting up that wall faster than she can even realize before he has a chance to question the moment of weakness she’s just certain flashed in her eyes. She launches herself forward in the only way she deems fit to solve the solution, pushing her lips against his roughly and aggressively. His mouth moves against hers on instinct, but before she’s allowed to let herself fall into the moment, he’s pushing against her shoulders and moving backwards away from her body. 

“Stop, Fallon,” he says angrily. “Stop it. That’s not going to solve anything and you know it.”

“So, what? Are you just going to leave now?” Her arms cross against her chest defensively, as if she can shield herself from the hurt she’s already preparing to fall down around her like rain. “That’s it? All these years down the drain?”

“What would you do if I didn’t come back?” The words slip through the cracks in his teeth with a vigorous force, anger slicing through the room that’s coated in a fierce layer of tension. “What would you do?”

“I don’t know,” she spits back with an equal amount of spite. She centers a moment, allowing herself to take the second she needs to process the world she’s currently surrounded herself in before she takes a deep breath when the rigorous reality of their situation settles on her shoulders with an immensely heavy weight. She doesn’t want Liam to leave, she just doesn’t know how to fix the mess they’ve landed themselves in. The mess she’s landed them in. “Am I going to have to find out?”

“You tell me, Fallon.”


	25. I see you too.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He can’t remember the walk he took from that room where his mother attempted to defend her deceitful actions to the silent and dark car he’s now sitting in. He briefly notices the cold night air biting at his skin, and it clears his mind a little so that he can begin to shift through the wave of emotions he’s currently drowning in.
> 
> Missing scene from 3x16, immediately after Liam and Fallon confront Laura about Connor's true father.

“You know what? Don’t bother showing up at the wedding.”

He can’t remember the walk he took from that room where his mother attempted to defend her deceitful actions to the silent and dark car he’s now sitting in. He briefly notices the cold night air biting at his skin, and it clears his mind a little so that he can begin to sift through the wave of emotions he’s currently drowning in.

He doesn’t even know where to start; he doesn’t even know how he should _feel._

Anger over being lied to for so many years?

Disappointment that it was his own mother who did this to him?

Hurt that his own father and girlfriend betrayed him and never came clean about the truth?

Grief over the fond memory he held of his father being completely tainted by all of this?

Relief that Connor isn’t really his?

Guilt that deep down, he truly is relieved about that...

He feels it _all_ , like an unrelenting storm battering him. A maelstrom of emotions deep inside his gut, rising, making his head spin, forcing tears to well in his eyes and it’s all just _too much._

He can’t handle this.

He shouldn’t _have_ to handle this. Yet again his life has been shaped and moulded by other people when he’s done nothing wrong, and he’s the one left with the fallout. He’s the one left a mess.

His hands flex on the leather steering wheel, noticing his knuckles are white from the strain.

He won’t let her weaken him again.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath... and he shuts it off. He swallows the feelings down like a pill, locking them away in an airtight box.

What was the point in getting emotional anyway? That gave Laura power over him, which was something he was sick of allowing. All these years she’s had her claws sunk so deep into his skin – well, no more. This was the last straw.

No more hoping, no more excuses, no more second chances. Laura wasn’t just toying with his life this time, she was using him as a scapegoat for his own Father’s mistakes, and it impacted everyone around him, including an innocent child. This had truly crossed the line.

In his mind, she was dead to him now.

He brings his hand up to his face, wiping roughly at his eyes, ridding them of the dampness there, detesting that it had collected there against his will.

Another few deep breaths are all it takes for him to feel numb.

Being numb is _so_ much better than feeling all of those complicated, messy emotions all at once.

He at least feels like he can _breathe_ now with his head a little clearer.

An icy draft hits his right shoulder as the passenger door opens and closes again, the small space suddenly being filled with rose-scented perfume. The smell he now associates with home, security, love.

He dares to look her way, feeling composed enough not to betray what was simmering below the surface, begging to be felt.

“Hey,” she says softly, her eyes blue shining in the darkness, “are you okay?” She shakes her head, rolling her eyes at herself before he even has the chance to respond, “that’s a stupid question. Of _course,_ you’re not okay.”

Liam shrugs his shoulders, “I’m fine.”

Fallon immediately throws him a dubious look, “no you’re not,” she says matter-of-factly, her voice steady and controlled. Her hand reaches out to cup his cheek, to give him the comfort she knows he needs – but, he can’t accept. If he does, he’ll crumble. So, he turns away from her touch, staring straight ahead at the empty driveway, allowing her hand to hover in the air.

“No, I am,” he replies curtly and goes to turn the key in the ignition, wanting to get out of here. Escaping was his forte, after all.

“Liam, hey,” her hand lands on his, her fingers curling around the back of his palm. The feeling of her thumb lightly caressing his skin tethers him to her, that specific and unique connection between them roaring to life, “don’t shut me out.”

“That’s not what I’m doing,” he breathes out, meeting her eyes again. He’s not shutting _her_ out, it’s the _pain_ he’s shutting out, but he can see how she came to that conclusion.

“Yes, you are,” she stresses, huffing out a frustrated breath, “you say I compartmentalise my emotions, but Liam, you are just as bad as I am. You did it when Heidi and Connor showed up, and god knows how many times over the years with the crap your Mom pulls on you... It’s okay not to be okay right now. I’m not going to think any less of you.”

“I know you won’t, but Fallon,” he takes a shallow breath, his voice breaking slightly as he continues, “I don’t want to _feel_ it.”

Her gaze softens immediately at his confession, “I know,” she says, tangling their fingers together, bringing their joined hands to her chest where he can feel the light vibrations of the gentle rhythm of her heartbeat, “I get that too, but honey, that’s not healthy. I’m right here, I’m here with you, Liam. I’m your partner. You can lean on me, always.”

Just like that, she manages to chip away at the dam he’d built to keep the emotions at bay, allowing tears to trickle back into his peripheral view. He knows she’s right, and that she’s doing this out of love, but when he thinks of his surroundings, the lights from his Mother’s mansion illuminating the interior of the car like she’s still haunting him, even _here_ with them, he decides he has to hold on just a little longer.

“Not here.”

She nods, “okay, when we get home, alright? We’re going to talk about this, and you can feel _anything_ that you need to feel. You’re not hiding from yourself, and you’re certainly not hiding from me.” A small smirk tugs at the corner of her lips before she continues, “I see you too, Liam Ridley.”

Despite it all, he can’t help but smile at her. Instead of feeling all that hurt, instead, he’s unexpectedly flooded with nothing but admiration for her.

_This woman._

The one who could see his soul when no one else could, the one who saved him from his own loneliness. The one who continues to do just that, making sure he doesn’t just get lost in his own head, which is _so_ easy for him to do.

She’s saved him in ways she doesn’t even comprehend.

“I love you.” He declares, his voice full of fervour. 

She mirrors his smile, giving his hand joined with hers a gentle squeeze before letting go so that she can cup his face and leans forwards, capturing his lips with hers.

He immediately presses against her, drinking in the strength she’s offering with her tender kiss, their lips soft and pliant as they move against one another slowly. It may be chaste, but it’s sweet and lingers on even when she pulls back gently, their gazes meeting once again as their eyes open and find one another in the darkness.

Sometimes he thinks Fallon has her own gravitational pull, like she’s the sun and he’s the planets spinning around her, and right now he isn’t sure he’d want it any other way. She’s his _whole_ world, his _chosen_ family, screw Laura Van Kirk, her days of controlling him are over.

“And I love you,” she states, breathing into the small space between them, and uses her thumb to wipe away the moisture collected in the corner of his eyes, “you okay?”

He reigns in the emotions threatening to spill over, giving her a nod as he moves away from her touch, the loss of the warmth of her palms on his face instantly noticeable.

“Yeah,” he responds breathily. 

She gives him a tight-lipped smile, “Then let’s get out of here.”

It’s permission, permission to turn the key in the ignition and pull the car away from this tainted place. As they drive into the city, Fallon reminds him in her own subtle, distinctive way, that he isn’t alone this time, she really is his partner. What he feels, she feels too. He’s thankful that for the whole journey back, her hand never leaves his.


	26. sun valley

It was a beautiful night outside the best ski resort in Sun Valley, Idaho. The sky had cleared up after the snow storm earlier that morning and there were so many stars, their light shining brightly against the black background, that Fallon could only wish they would send her a sign.

Their plan against Ashley had been working flawlessly so far and as Sam and Kirby returned to their cabin, she knew it was time for her act. The brunette had been sitting by one of the windows, a glass of whiskey in her hand, while she stared at the white mountains and starry sky. 

Admittedly, Fallon had never been one to be superstitious but there was only so much she could do at that point. She didn’t believe in fate. She believed things happened because she _made_ them happen.

Although she had flown across the country for that purpose and that purpose alone, it was still inevitable for her to wish that whatever entity was up there would give her a signal that, after everything, she would finally get what she really wanted that night. She was just about to turn around when she saw it through the corner of her eyes. A shooting star.

It didn’t take long for Fallon to spot him as she walked into the restaurant, dressed to impress in her all pink outfit - a draped asymmetric satin midi skirt and a delicate light pink turtleneck paired with a white leather belt around her waist. Her hair was thrown partially to the side and the soft waves of brown hair were falling in front of her chest as she made her way towards him.

“Fallon?” Liam spoke while standing up, surprised to see his former fake-wife instead of his current girlfriend approaching his chosen table.

“Relax,” Fallon replied with a smile. “There’s nothing wrong with two old friends playing catch-up,” she added, taking a seat across from him.

“So, that’s what we are?” He asked, turning his head constantly to his left in search of his girlfriend, who was supposed to be done with her spa appointment already and should show up at any moment.

“We do have a history,” she shrugged. “Sure, it might not go as far back as you and what’s-her-face, but you left an indelible mark on my past, so that’s gotta count for something,” she exclaimed.

“That’s fair,” Liam replied with a grin. _God, she had missed that grin._ She thought. “And I assume you’re referring to Ashley,”

“I made a mistake,” Fallon spoke up, the words trailing on her tongue as she flat out admitted having done some wrong, something that required a lot of emotional and even physical strength for someone like her. “Turns out that I’m human,” she added, a light chuckle escaping her lips as he laughed softly at her statement.

“See, now that admission is something for the history books,” he said playfully.

Fallon could only look up at him at the sound of the laugh she had missed so much, a pure yet shy smile plastered on her lips. The butterflies in her stomach had already made themselves present and she simply couldn’t she felt something special for that man sitting right in front of her.

“Well…” She paused. “You were right. Culhane was not my one,” she admitted, watching as he slowly looked away from her apologizing blue eyes and focused on the glass in his hand. “And I realized something that you knew immediately. You are my one, Liam,”

Just like that, the words were out there. The five words that she had been trying so hard to tell him for months. The five words that she had been trying to _understand_ for months. The walls around her broken heart had kept her away from that realization for too long, but he needed to know. He needed to know how she felt about him.

“I’m just sorry it took me so long to figure it out,” she murmured.

“Um,” Liam exhaled while searching for the appropriate words. “Fallon… there’s,” he paused, shaking his head slightly. “There’s no point rehashing the past,” he shrugged. “I’m really happy right now,”

“Okay, but I mean, you,” Fallon paused. “We were happy,” she reminded him. “We could have been. We still can be,” she reassured him, raising her tone when she realized the conversation was taking a different turn than what she had initially expected. It wasn’t what she hoped, what she _wished_ , it would be. “We can start fresh,”

“Yeah, see, that’s exactly it,” he replied right away. “I _have_ started fresh,” his tone was soft, as if trying to tell her that it was indeed too late without breaking her heart. “I moved on,”

Her eyes widened as realization started to hit her. He was on a romantic trip with his girlfriend, a girl he had known ever since he was a baby, and she knew what that meant. It meant they were solid. It meant they were happy. But to have him actually say the words felt like she was being hit by a ton of bricks.

“If you care about me as much as you say you do, I’d like for you to respect that,” he requested. “Let’s remember our marriage with fondness and move on,” he suggested. “Deal?”

Taking a deep breath, she felt like the only thing she could do was nod in response.

“Fine,” Fallon finally spoke. “I’m only doing it because of how much I care about you, Liam,” she continued, extending her arm in his direction in an attempt of reaching for his hand, only to have him pull it away immediately as her fingers touched the softness of his skin.

“Thank you, Fallon,” Liam whispered, looking around the restaurant as her entire world fell apart on the other side of the table and with that, he reached for his glass and stood up.

“Liam, wait!” She exclaimed, suddenly dragging all of the guests’ attention towards her while she pushed herself off the chair. “Please,” she begged, her voice fading as she watched him turn around.

“I’m sorry, Fallon,” he offered her an apologetically smile.

Before Liam could continue his walk, heading towards the resort’s lobby and walking away from her for once and for all, he noticed Fallon approaching him. He could hear the sound of her high heeled boots echoing around the room, mixed with the loud chattering of the people surrounding them, and he barely had any time to process what was happening when she threw herself at him.

His first instinct was to tighten the grip of his fingers around the crystal glass but the moment she crashed her lips against his, his unoccupied hand flew to her waist. It took him only a second to give in to her unexpected act and closing his eyes, he deepened the kiss. 

Pushing gently against her lips, he quickly demanded entrance as he held the glass against her lower back in an attempt of pulling her even closer to him. The kiss started slow, their lips moving against one another as they both figured out a pace. 

Liam could tell she was desperate by how eager she was attacking his lips and Fallon could tell she had caught him totally off guard by how paralized he was. However, as soon as their tongues tangled around each other, battling for dominance, it felt like nothing else existed besides them.

Their lips were moving in perfect sync, soft moans escaping their lungs as they deepened the kiss, completely oblivious to the other guests in the restaurant. As her hands flew to his hair, threading her fingers into his short strands, she opened her eyes only to realize he was already staring at her while pulling on her bottom lip with his teeth.

“Fallon,” she heard a murmur but it felt so far away, so distant. “Fallon!”

Her body bolted out of the couch at the feeling of someone shaking her. When she opened her eyes, expecting to find the familiar pair of blue orbs, she could only groan when she realized it was nobody but Sam, shaking her awake from her dream.

“You were moaning,” the latino man informed her.

“I take your meeting with Liam didn’t go well?” Kirby asked, gesturing to the half empty bottle of whiskey she was hugging against her chest like a teddy bear.

“What does it look like?” Fallon groaned, sitting up before opening the bottle and drinking a considerable amount of the amber drink.

“It looks like you passed out on the couch from drinking,” Cristal responded in a disapproving tone.

“Yeah, well, he’s happy with that tramp,” she told them. “Apparently,” she shrugged.

“You were just moaning his name in your sleep,” Monica spoke up. “What really happened tonight, Fallon?”

“He walked away,”


	27. angel of small death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry but not really

She’s perched up on the marble counter top, watching on in vast amusement as her boyfriend throws a second pad of butter into the non-stick pan; he takes the batter in the glass bowl and ladles another scoop of the pancake batter loaded up with fresh blueberries into the pan. It sizzles when the thick batter touches the hot pan loaded with butter, small bubbles already starting to float near the edges of the pancake as it started to cook through.

He’s clad in only his boxers and she’s thankful that her family is gone for the morning, off on some random adventure. She doesn’t know where they are, honestly; she tuned them out as soon as they mentioned the house would be empty that day. She’d been invited with Liam, of course, but she promptly declined and decided to take the alone time that was so rare to find in this home.

“You do know that women find men who cook incredibly sexy, right?”

“Do they?” He looks down at his pan, slipping the spatula under the breakfast pastry and flipping it to its uncooked side. “I had no idea.”

“You’re so full of shit.”

“I might have had a tiny inkling that they find it sexy,” he shrugs.

Liam steps over to the side and steps between her legs, placing his hands on her bare upper thighs before he leans and presses his lips to hers in a chaste kiss. It’s minty and fresh - Liam just having had brushed his teeth before they made their way downstairs to cook breakfast. It mixes with the fresh strawberries she’d been snacking on as he did all the hard work off to her side, mixing the batter and flipping the pancakes. The kiss stays sweet and simple, lips only moving slightly against each other in slow motions; not going too far before he pulls back and tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“I love you, you know that right?”

“I know,” she smiles, eyes darting to the side. “But,” she pauses again. “Did you know your pancake is starting to burn?”

“Shit.”

He spins from her body and dumps the slightly burned pancake into the trashcan before the doorbell rings, echoing throughout the kitchen with its distinguishable chimes. They both look at each other in curiosity; they hadn’t been expecting visitors.

“Was someone supposed to be coming over?” She asks him, already jumping off her perch on the counter. “I’ll go get it so you can do all the manly work here in the kitchen.”

* * *

He’d been waiting for her to return to the kitchen for five minutes before he finally goes to find her.

Who could have possibly been at the door on a Sunday morning and be eating up _this_ much of her time, anyways? They weren’t expecting any visitors and it’s not like visitors were something of a regular occurrence at the manor to begin with. The staff was off for the day and her family wasn’t due back until later that day.

And more importantly, the pancakes were starting to get cold and he was _starving._

He rounds the corner from the kitchen and finds the door wide open, the cool summer breeze rolling through the doorway.

But there’s no sign of Fallon.

It’s peculiar, he thinks, but he doesn’t question it much further, because maybe someone had just stopped by and they were chatting outside. It seemed like the most logical option, he thinks. So, he strides further along in the foyer, escaping out the door into the warm air and stumbles when he catches sight of what’s in front of him.

Fallon, laid out in a pool of crimson blood, _her_ blood, right in front of him on the cement.

He knees give out and he drops to the ground in a fury of speed, pulling the lifeless body to him and cradling her head in his hands. He notices the sharp kitchen knife buried deep into her chest, the precise location of it right into her heart. The blood spills around the wound, leaving her body at speeds he knew were limiting her chance of survival the longer he waited this out.

Raggedy puffs of air escape his chest as he tries to focus on the only thing that matters: _her._

He reaches for her phone, tucked into the silk pocket of her white robe that she’s wearing, drenched in _so much blood_ and he chokes up on his words when he finally gets a dispatcher on the line, shouting their address and telling them to _hurry, hurry, hurry._

And then his attention is right back on her.

 _“Please,_ be alive. _Please,”_ he begs, running his fingers through her soft brown locks, cradling her face in his hands as he notices just how pale she’s starting to look. He presses his lips against her cold, cold forehead, hearing the sirens starting to wail in the distance; praying for them to _hurry, hurry, hurry._

He reaches for her wrist to check for her pulse, frantically searching for any signs of a pulse through the tears that won’t stop streaming down his face, that have somehow started blurring his vision and any rationale he may have had before finding her like this.

But there’s nothing.

_Nothing._

The only thing he can do is cry into her chest and think is _she’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone,_ as the loud sirens sound off; louder this time, indicated they’d moved closer to his location. But that’s when he notices it. The little piece of paper that’s folded up inside her front robe pocket. He pulls it out carefully, opening it to find black sharpie letters haphazardly smudged inside.

_If I can’t have her, neither can you._


	28. let me be a part of your history, babe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas gift exchange fluffiness.

Surprising Fallon with a gift is an impossible task.

It’s a genuinely challenging tribulation, like a trial set by the gods which will frustrate Liam for the rest of his life.

Thus far, he’s been embarrassingly unsuccessful in said test.

Last Christmas, she had scoured every nook and cranny of the manor to find the presents he thought he’d tactically hidden. For her birthday, she’d sneakily recovered his browser history, and for their anniversary she’d quite simply _guessed_ what he’d bought for her.

So this year, he’s been smart about it. This year, he’s planned with meticulous detail how to keep her in the dark, and he’s pretty sure, up to this point, that she knows _nothing._

He’s well aware of the facts that she’s tried to find out, he’s caught her a few times looking in some known hiding spots, and he also knows that it’s been driving her _insane_ that she still hasn’t figured it out, even now, on Christmas day.

The Carrington’s traditions were already in full swing; gathering the whole house together on Christmas morning where they took turns to open their gifts from one another, and Fallon has just reached the end of her pile with no gifts from Liam in sight.

“Thank you…” Fallon throws Kirby’s way, holding up an obscenely patterned festive sweater, her face growing more displeased as she studies the garment, “It’s…” She begins, as if she is attempting to choose her words wisely to not offend, but then ends up giving in pretty quickly when nothing comes to her mind, which is unsurprising, considering it’s _Fallon,_ “Well, it’s hideous, honestly. Not to mention, itchy. Where did you buy this from? Target?”

“Actually, yes,” The red-head bites back in her Australian lilt, “I thought it might humble you a little.”

Fallon remains tight-lipped as she raises her eyebrows and slowly replaces the garment back into the gift-box it had been wrapped in, “What an interesting theory…”

It hits the marble floor with a thud, carelessly deposited along with the rest of the gifts that are surrounding Fallon’s side of the sofa, looking incredibly out of place amongst the array of designer bags her family and close friends had bought for her. The rest had played it reasonably safe with sapphire jewellery and Gucci scarfs, all of which had been well-received, now with the exception of the itchy, ugly sweater from Kirby.

“It will certainly humble me when I donate it to a homeless person, and even they refuse to wear it,” She adds, ignoring Kirby’s eye-roll to instead turn to Liam, her head tilted, eyes wide, throwing him a sweet smile, the kind only reserved for him, “I’m guessing I saved the best until last?”

Liam shrugs, a nonchalant expression on his face, “I didn’t get you anything.”

Her face falls before studying him, her eyes squinting slightly before she responds with confidence, “Liar.”

He breathes out a laugh, quickly giving up the charade, and slides his hand across his chest to grasp at her gift in the inner pocket of his jacket, revealing to her a red envelope he’d hidden there to keep her from finding it prematurely.

“Merry Christmas,” He says softly as he offers her the envelope which she takes with caution, her confusion evident in the way her brows furrow closer together.

“I hope this isn’t a cheque,” She comments as she examines the envelope in her hands, “Especially considering we have a joint bank account.”

“Just open it,” He insists.

He watches her closely as she breaks the seal and pulls out the papers contained within, reading frantically over the paperwork in her hands.

Finally, Liam lets out a breath he wasn’t even aware he was holding when he witnesses her smile widen, and she lets out a small gasp, “Oh, Liam.”

“What?” Sam asks, his ears pricking up, eyes wide with interest, “What did he get you?”

“It’s a trip,” She eventually announces, flashing the embossed paperwork at the rest of the family.

“It’s the orient express,” Liam clarifies, “Travelling from London to Venice where we’ll spend a few days before staying in my family’s Castello in Lake Garda for the rest of the week.”

That earns him a few ‘awws’ from the surrounding family members, mainly the women. Blake, on the other hand, looks at Liam with an unamused glare. Annoyed, perhaps, that his son-in-law had upstaged everyone’s gifts with a genuinely romantic and thoughtful present, which was the polar opposite of the Tiffany jewellery that the older man had purchased for his own wife.

“That’s lovely, Liam,” Cristal comments, side-eying Blake, “I’m _extremely_ jealous.”

Her passive aggressiveness doesn’t go unnoticed, filling the space with air that feels so thick it’s almost tangible. Every second that ticks by in awkward silence feels like torture, until finally, Fallon finishes reading through the information for the trip, apparently oblivious to the uneasy tension in the room.

“Liam, this is _perfect,”_ She breathes out, catching his gaze, blue meeting blue, still making his heart beat just that little bit faster when she smiles at him like that, “Thank you.”

His expression mirrors hers, soft and heartfelt, “I know how much you value our quality time together, I figured what better way to do that than in a Victorian carriage on the way to Italy?”

“I can’t think of anything better,” Fallon replies, moving closer and leaning into him to press her lips against his. He feels her smile into the kiss, a sensation he is sure he will never grow tired of. It’s only a chaste, love-affirming peck, but he savours it nevertheless, “I can’t wait to go,” She whispers as she pulls back, their hands finding one another in the small space between them, interlocking.

“Okay, who’s next?” Sam asks, his impatient tone cutting through the room, slightly killing their romantic moment.

“Liam,” Fallon responds, a mischievous glint suddenly in her eyes, “Liam’s next.”

She gives his thigh a small squeeze before standing to make her way over to the imposing decorated tree, picking from it a small gift box, hanging there from its red ribbon bow.

Liam looks at it in her hands curiously, having previously assumed it was actually an empty Christmas decoration and can’t help but admire her ingenuity. She’d hidden his gift in plain sight, and he’d definitely fell for it.

“This is something from your past that was lost, and now I’m giving it back to you,” She explains as she comes to stand in front of him, the box outstretched in her palm in offering, “It’s a part of your history that I hope _I_ can now be a part of.”

A million thoughts flash through his mind as to what could possibly be in that box. More jewellery that Fallon’s bribed maids to steal from Laura’s house again? Perhaps even his Dad’s ring that Fallon’s somehow managed to pry from around her neck? A token of his childhood? Something he’s forgotten amidst his bout of amnesia?

Of all the things that he thinks of, Liam would never have expected to find what he does as he carefully takes the box from her, pulls open the ribbon and lifts up the lid.

A key.

A car key to be exact, one which looks eerily familiar to him but he just cannot for the life of him place where it is in his mind.

“Did you get me a car?”

When he looks up, Fallon’s smirking down at him, her arm outstretched, a hand offered out.

“Come with me, and you’ll find out,” She responds to him, gesturing with her head towards the foyer.

He throws her a questioning look before standing and taking her smaller hand, pocketing the key before allowing her to lead them away from the curious faces of the rest of the family. When Liam sees a member of staff already standing near the main oak doors, waiting with their coats in his hand, he realises that whatever Fallon’s up to, she’s also had planned out and has managed to keep as a secret from him.

“You ready?” She asks once they’ve prepared themselves to step out into the chilly December air.

“Yeah,” He nods, before the staff member opens the main door, a freezing wind hitting them instantly. Except, Liam doesn’t take any notice of it whatsoever when his eyes land on Fallon’s Christmas gift to him.

He’s stunned.

Speechless.

Unsure if this is even real.

“Look familiar?” She asks as she strides towards the black 1967 Ford Mustang GT fastback which is parked directly outside the manor’s doors, the winter sun glinting off of its polished surface. She turns to him, a wide grin on her face, like she can’t contain her excitement.

“I…” He begins, struggling to get his brain to formulate words as he steps forwards and takes the car in for all of her glory, coming to stand next to Fallon, “It looks _exactly_ like the one my grandfather used to have. How did you know?”

“I saw the photograph that you were using as a bookmark, the one of you and him in the car when you were a kid, and inspiration struck,” She explains, and watches him closely as he begins to circle the car and takes in the details, “Do you like it?”

Liam tears his eyes away to gaze at her, “Like it? Fallon, I _love_ it. You’re amazing,” He breathes out, already beginning to feel his cheeks hurting from grinning so much. It’s like being hit with a wave of nostalgia, memories of the time’s he’d spent with his beloved grandfather come flooding back to the forefront of his mind and he’s in complete _awe._ “I can’t believe you managed to find a car like this and in such great condition.”

She shrugs casually, “I have my ways.”

He shakes his head in disbelief as he makes his way to her and stops only centimetres away, looking her directly in the eyes, “Thank you.”

“You’re welco-” He cuts her off as he grabs her waist and pulls her in for a kiss, his lips crashing against hers, taking her by surprise. It only takes her a few seconds before her brain catches up with her and she hums into the kiss, practically melting in his arms as their lips press against one another with determination. Her fingers card through his hair as his hands find the small of her back, pulling her even closer. He tries to say everything he can’t in that kiss, how utterly grateful he is for this gift, for the memories she’s brought back to him, and ultimately, how utterly appreciative he is for _her._ They only break apart once they both become lightheaded and are in desperate need of oxygen, and Liam can’t help but love to see the slightly dreamy expression on Fallon’s face as he takes her in, still reluctant to let her out of his arms.

“I’m guessing that means I win the prize for the best wife of the year?” She asks, almost lazily as she looks up at him through her lashes.

“More like the best wife of the _decade_ ,” He responds, still completely elated.

“Oh, by the way, there is _one_ more surprise…” Fallon adds and begins to pull away from him and out of his grasp.

“Fallon…” He begins to argue. She’d already done _so_ much for him by buying him this Mustang, anything extra just felt like he was overly spoiled.

She cuts him off before he can say anything extra, walking backwards and only stopping once she reaches the rear side of the vehicle.

“Let’s just say that there’s a reason this looks exactly like the one your grandfather had,” She says before pulling on the door handle, letting the passenger door creak open. Using her forefinger, she signals for him to join her, and once he’s at her side, she points down at the interior of the door where there’s some obvious damage done to the inner paintwork, “Do you remember doing that?” She asks.

“No way.” He looks at her, his mouth wide in shock, “No _way¸”_ He repeats as he swiftly crouches down and traces his fingers over ‘JLRL’ that had been scratched into the metal.

Yes, he remembers doing this. It had been on a long car journey that his Grandfather had taken him on one summer. They’d travelled all the way from his house in Denver to Arizona so that Liam could see the grand canyon for the first time. He had later learned that his grandfather had done it to get him away from Laura and John’s bickering, their marriage had been going through a rough patch at the time. Apparently, young Liam’s way of dealing with the emotional turmoil had been to make his mark on the interior of his grandfather’s beloved Mustang, which the older man had, unsurprisingly, _not_ at all been happy about. “This is the same car?!”

Fallon nods, “Yep.”

He glances up at her, completely astonished. His grandfather’s whole estate had burnt down, killing him and his grandmother only a few years later, and he’d never seen the car again. He had no clue it still even existed. “How did you…?” He asks as he slowly stands again.

“Well, after I saw the photo, I made a few calls to some of your family members to track down what had happened to the car. Turns out it was at one of your families properties, your Grandfather’s brother had inherited it and had just left it there to rot. So, I did what I do best, flashed my cash, and sweet-talked them into letting me have the car so that I could have it restored for you, and, well, here we are.”

He doesn’t know what to say. He’s just so completely overwhelmed with one strong feeling coursing through his veins as he looks at his wife. She had time and time again proved herself to be the complete opposite of how strangers perceive her, being fiercely compassionate to the people that she cares about the most, and Liam couldn’t be more grateful.

“I love you,” He declares, looking at her with an intense gaze as he speaks directly from the heart, “I love you _so much_.”

Her head tilts slightly to the side, the way it often does when he makes such declarations, and a small smile plays on her lips, “I know you do,” She says softly, “How about after dinner you take us for a ride? Just the two of us? Well,” She falters, glancing down at the jet black Mustang, “The three of us, technically.”

He lets out a chuckle, “That sounds perfect.”

“Yeah?”

He nods, inching closer to her, “Yeah.”

“Merry Christmas, Liam.” She utters, and he can’t help but pull her in for another kiss. This time, she catches on before their lips make contact, and meets him halfway as they slot back together tenderly, his hands moving up to cup the side of her face.

He breaks away but doesn’t move far. Instead, he leans forwards, their foreheads touching, breathing in one another’s air, “Merry Christmas, Fallon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And also a Merry Christmas to you, readers. Love from Kim.


End file.
